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Practice report

St. Pete IndyCar: Herta leads Sato in warm-up

Polesitter Colton Herta led the final practice session for this afternoon’s Firestone GP of St. Petersburg which was full of trips to runoff zones.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport Honda

Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

Drivers spent the session weighing up the pluses and minuses of running used softer alternate compound tires compared with the harder compound primaries, as the track evolves to be kinder to the Firestone ‘reds’.

Most drivers’ fastest laps came on that softer compound, and it was pole-winner Colton Herta who topped the times for Andretti Autosport-Honda, ahead of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda’s Takuma Sato.

Scott Dixon was top Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda ahead of fellow New Zealander and rookie Scott McLaughlin in the Team Penske-Chevrolet.

However, times didn’t come easy for many, as Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward, Dalton Kellett, all took trips down escape roads.

Some drivers had also acquired overnight scoops on top of their aeroscreens, in response to the rising humidity.

Romain Grosjean’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda was seen to be smoking from the right side of the engine in the final 10 minutes of the session, although the ex-Formula 1 driver did manage to complete 20 laps.

The 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at 12.40pm local (Eastern) time.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 United States Colton Herta
United States Andretti Autosport 23 1'00.663 106.819
2 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 24 1'00.676 0.013 106.795
3 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 25 1'00.809 0.146 106.563
4 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
United States Team Penske 26 1'00.872 0.208 106.453
5 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 25 1'00.941 0.278 106.332
6 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 20 1'01.016 0.353 106.200
7 United States Josef Newgarden
United States Team Penske 26 1'01.043 0.380 106.153
8 United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 21 1'01.100 0.437 106.054
9 United States Graham Rahal
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 25 1'01.130 0.467 106.003
10 United States Alexander Rossi
United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'01.220 0.557 105.846
11 United Kingdom Jack Harvey
United States Meyer Shank Racing 19 1'01.331 0.668 105.656
12 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
Arrow McLaren SP 18 1'01.354 0.691 105.616
13 France Simon Pagenaud
United States Team Penske 24 1'01.385 0.722 105.562
14 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 26 1'01.397 0.734 105.542
15 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'01.412 0.749 105.516
16 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren SP 21 1'01.519 0.855 105.333
17 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 26 1'01.618 0.955 105.163
18 Canada James Hinchcliffe
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport 24 1'01.756 1.093 104.928
19 United States Conor Daly
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 20 1'01.829 1.166 104.804
20 United Kingdom Max Chilton
United Kingdom Carlin 22 1'01.867 1.204 104.740
21 France Romain Grosjean
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR 20 1'01.972 1.308 104.563
22 France Sébastien Bourdais
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 25 1'01.978 1.315 104.552
23 Canada Dalton Kellett
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20 1'02.114 1.451 104.323
24 United States Jimmie Johnson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 25 1'02.662 1.999 103.412

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Previous article Firestone denies IndyCar tire “lottery” at St. Petersburg
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