St. Pete IndyCar: Herta, Kirkwood top raceday warm-up
Final practice ahead of the IndyCar season-opener, the Grand Prix of St. Petersbug, was topped by the Andretti Autosport cars of Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood.
There was plenty of experimentation with tires in the 78 degree heat and increasing humidity under cloudy skies. Firestone’s guayule-sidewalled tires had a noticeable peak for one lap – two by the gentlest driver/car combinations – but drivers and race engineers still needed to know how long they could make them last in what will be a 100-lap race dominated by the primary tire.
Colton Herta, who will start from the outside of the front row alongside his Andretti Autosport teammate Romain Grosjean, was also seen experimenting with the inside line into the wide Turn 1. The paint on the runway of Albert Whitted Airport can make outbraking maneuvers particularly difficult, with rubber build-up off-line exacerbating the problem.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who will start from 14th this afternoon, looked particularly strong and consistent on alternates but a major caveat there is that (unlike in qualifying), he seemed to have clear track much more than his rivals.
Late in the session, Chip Ganassi Racing’s 2021 champion Alex Palou was spotted practicing restarts on primary tires, gauging how much grip there was when getting on the power through the long horseshoe-shaped final turn.
Herta and new teammate Kyle Kirkwood topped the session, ahead of Scott Dixon who sideswiped the Turn 3 wall with three minutes to go, but stayed out with apparently no structural damage.
Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing was fourth ahead of the Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet of Callum Ilott, Newgarden and Palou.
Late in the session, defending IndyCar champion Will Power jumped to eighth running on Firestone’s primary tires, while teammate Newgarden and Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist visited the Turn 10 escape road.
The 20th running of the GP of St. Petersburg will get the green flag at 12.30pm local (Eastern) time.
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 20 | 1'00.5886 | 106.951 | |
2 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Autosport | 22 | 1'00.7213 | 0.1327 | 106.717 |
3 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 22 | 1'00.8377 | 0.2491 | 106.513 |
4 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 24 | 1'00.9833 | 0.3947 | 106.259 |
5 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 26 | 1'01.0320 | 0.4434 | 106.174 |
6 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 26 | 1'01.0405 | 0.4519 | 106.159 |
7 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 22 | 1'01.1932 | 0.6046 | 105.894 |
8 | Will Power | Team Penske | 26 | 1'01.2204 | 0.6318 | 105.847 |
9 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | 22 | 1'01.2490 | 0.6604 | 105.798 |
10 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 26 | 1'01.2596 | 0.6710 | 105.779 |
11 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | 26 | 1'01.2888 | 0.7002 | 105.729 |
12 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | 23 | 1'01.3403 | 0.7517 | 105.640 |
13 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19 | 1'01.3780 | 0.7894 | 105.575 |
14 | Marcus Armstrong | Chip Ganassi Racing | 26 | 1'01.4183 | 0.8297 | 105.506 |
15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 22 | 1'01.4406 | 0.8520 | 105.468 |
16 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 23 | 1'01.4864 | 0.8978 | 105.389 |
17 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 24 | 1'01.4935 | 0.9049 | 105.377 |
18 | Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 26 | 1'01.5159 | 0.9273 | 105.339 |
19 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren | 22 | 1'01.5381 | 0.9495 | 105.301 |
20 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren | 23 | 1'01.5382 | 0.9496 | 105.300 |
21 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing | 26 | 1'01.8739 | 1.2853 | 104.729 |
22 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 19 | 1'01.9456 | 1.3570 | 104.608 |
23 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 24 | 1'02.0744 | 1.4858 | 104.391 |
24 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren | 23 | 1'02.1967 | 1.6081 | 104.186 |
25 | Ray Robb | Dale Coyne Racing | 21 | 1'02.5812 | 1.9926 | 103.545 |
26 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 23 | 1'02.7215 | 2.1329 | 103.314 |
27 | Benjamin Pedersen | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 20 | 1'03.1406 | 2.5520 | 102.628 |
View full results |
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