St. Pete IndyCar: Grosjean leads first practice of the year

Aside from installation laps, in the first 10 minutes the action was provided by rookies, as they were granted an extra set of primaries for this session. Andretti Autosport-Honda’s newcomer Devlin DeFrancesco was the first to break the 62sec barrier around this 1.8-mile course, clocking a 61.8256sec lap, an average of 104.811mph.

His former Indy Lights teammate Kyle Kirkwood got very close in the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, and eventually surpassed him, but by then three-time St. Pete winner Helio Castroneves had vaulted the Meyer Shank Racing-Honda to the top with a 61.6086.

That time held strong until Andretti Autosport’s veterans hit the track, at which point the team’s star signing Romain Grosjean delivered a 61.0525sec, with defending St. Pete winner 0.3241sec back.

At this point, top Chevrolet performer in third was Team Penske’s series sophomore Scott McLaughlin in third, until teammate and nine-time St. Pete polesitter Will Power slotted into second overall.

Herta reclaimed that position with his next flyer, his deficit to Grosjean down to 0.1042sec, while Graham Rahal and Jack Harvey had moved their Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Hondas into fourth and sixth, split by a third Andretti car, that of Alexander Rossi.

With 11mins to go, Simon Pagenaud in his first official session with Meyer Shank moved into fourth, but three minutes later Jimmie Johnson skittered into the Turn 10 run-off in the #48 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda. Despite his front brake catching fire while he was sitting still, the seven-time NASCAR champion kept his cool, and shuffled his way out without needing help from the marshals, but the incident had brought out the red flag.

There were late improvements after the short delay, the most notable of which was Rinus VeeKay shooting into ninth with his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy, while David Malukas ended the session as top rookie in 10^th for Dale Coyne Racing-Honda, two slots ahead of his 2021 Indy Lights rival Kirkwood.

Surprising under-performers included two-time St. Pete winner Josef Newgarden in 14^th despite turning his fastest lap at the close of the session. Yet that was still enough to put him ahead of all the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas, the best of which was Marcus Ericsson in 15^th.

The Arrow McLaren SP-Chevys were also surprisingly adrift, Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward finishing up 16^th and 21^st.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	14	1'01.052		106.138
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	19	1'01.156	0.104	105.957
3	Will Power	Team Penske	18	1'01.228	0.175	105.834
4	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	18	1'01.324	0.272	105.667
5	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	13	1'01.368	0.315	105.592
6	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	17	1'01.457	0.404	105.440
7	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	16	1'01.490	0.437	105.382
8	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	18	1'01.535	0.482	105.305
9	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	1'01.552	0.499	105.276
10	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	22	1'01.588	0.536	105.214
11	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	18	1'01.608	0.556	105.180
12	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	22	1'01.617	0.565	105.165
13	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	21	1'01.663	0.610	105.087
14	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	18	1'01.690	0.637	105.041
15	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'01.692	0.639	105.038
16	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	14	1'01.726	0.674	104.979
17	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	17	1'01.726	0.674	104.979
18	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	19	1'01.746	0.693	104.946
19	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	17	1'01.761	0.709	104.919
20	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'01.774	0.722	104.897
21	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	14	1'01.829	0.777	104.804
22	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	23	1'02.157	1.105	104.251
23	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	23	1'02.244	1.192	104.105
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	13	1'02.424	1.372	103.805
25	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	22	1'02.524	1.472	103.639
26	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	22	1'03.717	2.664	101.699
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