St. Pete IndyCar: Newgarden tops FP2, threatens lap record
Josef Newgarden kept Team Penske-Chevrolet at the top of the St. Petersburg times with a 60.0622sec lap of the 1.8-mile street and runway track.
Watch: IndyCar: St. Pete one minute barrier
Newgarden’s best effort was just a couple of hundredths from the track record, and was enough to put him more than a tenth ahead of his 2019 title rival, Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport-Honda.
Jack Harvey was third for Meyer Shank Racing-Honda ahead of another Andretti car, that of Colton Herta, while Marcus Ericsson was swiftest of the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas.
Story of the session
Romain Grosjean showed how swift his acclimation to IndyCar has been with a strong 61.1sec on his eighth lap of the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg track in his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda. However, Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Jack Harvey lowered the benchmark to 60.8249sec – a mark that Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport-Honda eclipsed with a 60.6277sec, fastest time of the weekend so far.
Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s rookie Jimmie Johnson was the first driver to take on Firestone’s alternate compound but frustratingly kept hitting traffic. His six-time IndyCar champion teammate Scott Dixon bounded up to the 60.6sec segment, just 0.175sec behind Rossi at the halfway point of the session.
It was Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy driver Pato O’Ward who finally displaced Rossi with a 60.5164sec run, still on primaries, and O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist went just 0.11sec slower to claim third.
With 15mins to go, Team Penske-Chevy’s rookie Scott McLaughlin moved into seventh, still on primary tires, which put him in the same 60.7sec zone as teammate Josef Newgarden, the pair sandwiching Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy. Simon Pagenaud, after a couple of trips down the Turn 4 escape road, also entered the top eight on primaries.
Then with 12mins to go, the front runners started switching to the alternate compound, and soon Andretti’s Colton Herta had whittled the leading time down to 60.2216sec – only to see Rossi trim a further 0.04sec from that time to claim P1.
McLaughlin then moved to third, briefly fastest of the Penske drivers as Will Power appeared to be struggling with understeer, but then Newgarden set a 60.0622 lap, an average of 107.888mph, to hit the top of the times.
Felix Rosenqvist’s red-tire run was spoiled by a front-right lock-up and a trip down the Turn 4 escape road.
A late improvement by Harvey saw him split the fastest Andretti cars to land third spot, while Pagenaud’s startling gold car claimed sixth, second fastest of the Penskes.
Qualifying begins at 1.45pm local (Eastern) time.
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Josef Newgarden
|
Team Penske | 23 | 1'00.062 | 107.888 | |
2 |
Alexander Rossi
|
Andretti Autosport | 23 | 1'00.174 | 0.112 | 107.686 |
3 |
Jack Harvey
|
Meyer Shank Racing | 21 | 1'00.219 | 0.157 | 107.607 |
4 |
Colton Herta
|
Andretti Autosport | 26 | 1'00.221 | 0.159 | 107.603 |
5 |
Marcus Ericsson
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 27 | 1'00.221 | 0.159 | 107.602 |
6 |
Simon Pagenaud
|
Team Penske | 28 | 1'00.273 | 0.211 | 107.510 |
7 |
Scott McLaughlin
|
Team Penske | 28 | 1'00.300 | 0.238 | 107.462 |
8 |
Scott Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 29 | 1'00.326 | 0.264 | 107.416 |
9 |
Romain Grosjean
|
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 24 | 1'00.419 | 0.357 | 107.250 |
10 |
Patricio O'Ward
|
Arrow McLaren SP | 25 | 1'00.479 | 0.417 | 107.143 |
11 |
Alex Palou
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 29 | 1'00.507 | 0.445 | 107.094 |
12 |
Felix Rosenqvist
|
Arrow McLaren SP | 21 | 1'00.629 | 0.566 | 106.879 |
13 |
Will Power
|
Team Penske | 24 | 1'00.648 | 0.586 | 106.844 |
14 |
Conor Daly
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 25 | 1'00.699 | 0.637 | 106.755 |
15 |
James Hinchcliffe
|
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | 21 | 1'00.701 | 0.639 | 106.751 |
16 |
Sébastien Bourdais
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 27 | 1'00.707 | 0.645 | 106.742 |
17 |
Rinus van Kalmthout
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 27 | 1'00.709 | 0.647 | 106.737 |
18 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay
|
Andretti Autosport | 25 | 1'00.716 | 0.653 | 106.726 |
19 |
Graham Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 28 | 1'00.730 | 0.668 | 106.701 |
20 |
Takuma Sato
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 30 | 1'00.890 | 0.828 | 106.420 |
21 |
Dalton Kellett
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 19 | 1'01.276 | 1.214 | 105.750 |
22 |
Ed Jones
|
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 24 | 1'01.671 | 1.609 | 105.073 |
23 |
Max Chilton
|
Carlin | 23 | 1'01.715 | 1.653 | 104.998 |
24 |
Jimmie Johnson
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 26 | 1'02.359 | 2.297 | 103.913 |
View full results |
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