St. Pete IndyCar: Herta tops warm-up, more Grosjean drama
Colton Herta topped Sunday morning warm-up for the season-opening race at St. Petersburg, but it was Josef Newgarden who led most of the session for Team Penske.
Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda
Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Herta, who will start the race from third position, lapped the course in 60.3283sec in his #26 Andretti Autosport-Honda, using a set of alternate tires to set a time some quarter-second faster than Newgarden.
But it was the Penske-Chevrolet driver’s progress that was more notable, as he endured an unconvincing qualifying session – and hadn’t looked strong in practice, either – and will roll off for today’s race from ninth on the grid. The team told NBC that everything from behind the engine has been changed, and Newgarden’s laps suggested the alteration has been successful.
A team that struggled as a whole in practice and qualifying was Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, but in race setup, they were strong enough to finish this session in third, fifth and seventh with defending champion Alex Palou, six-time champion Scott Dixon and two-time race-winner Marcus Ericsson respectively.
Rookie Callum Ilott gave Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet a fillip with fourth fastest time, while first-time polesitter Scott McLaughlin was sixth for Penske.
Romain Grosjean had minor incidents with both Simon Pagenaud, who he starts alongside this afternoon, and Pagenaud’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda teammate Helio Castroneves, who dive-bombed him at Turn 1 and made light contact, before spinning backwards three corners later and causing a red-flag with two minutes to go.
That wasn’t the first red flag of the session. Jimmie Johnson looped around at Turn 10, an incident that also got Rinus VeeKay involved, and the pair sat out the final five minutes of the session.
VeeKay’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy will start fourth this afternoon.
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Colton Herta
|
Andretti Autosport | 19 | 1'00.328 | 107.412 | |
2 |
Josef Newgarden
|
Team Penske | 21 | 1'00.597 | 0.268 | 106.936 |
3 |
Alex Palou
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 18 | 1'00.831 | 0.502 | 106.524 |
4 |
Callum Ilott
|
Juncos Hollinger Racing | 21 | 1'01.093 | 0.765 | 106.067 |
5 |
Scott Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 16 | 1'01.187 | 0.859 | 105.903 |
6 |
Scott McLaughlin
|
Team Penske | 20 | 1'01.195 | 0.866 | 105.891 |
7 |
Marcus Ericsson
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 17 | 1'01.206 | 0.878 | 105.871 |
8 |
Felix Rosenqvist
|
Arrow McLaren SP | 18 | 1'01.283 | 0.955 | 105.738 |
9 |
Kyle Kirkwood
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 16 | 1'01.334 | 1.006 | 105.650 |
10 |
Takuma Sato
|
Dale Coyne Racing | 20 | 1'01.359 | 1.031 | 105.607 |
11 |
Rinus van Kalmthout
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 17 | 1'01.479 | 1.151 | 105.401 |
12 |
Graham Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 23 | 1'01.522 | 1.194 | 105.327 |
13 |
Will Power
|
Team Penske | 22 | 1'01.547 | 1.219 | 105.284 |
14 |
Jack Harvey
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 20 | 1'01.572 | 1.244 | 105.242 |
15 |
Devlin DeFrancesco
|
Andretti Autosport | 20 | 1'01.661 | 1.333 | 105.090 |
16 |
David Malukas
|
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD | 21 | 1'01.725 | 1.396 | 104.982 |
17 |
Conor Daly
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 17 | 1'01.805 | 1.476 | 104.846 |
18 |
Simon Pagenaud
|
Meyer Shank Racing | 17 | 1'01.964 | 1.635 | 104.577 |
19 |
Patricio O'Ward
|
Arrow McLaren SP | 19 | 1'01.971 | 1.642 | 104.565 |
20 |
Dalton Kellett
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 20 | 1'01.975 | 1.647 | 104.558 |
21 |
Romain Grosjean
|
Andretti Autosport | 18 | 1'01.988 | 1.660 | 104.535 |
22 |
Alexander Rossi
|
Andretti Autosport | 19 | 1'02.234 | 1.905 | 104.123 |
23 |
Christian Lundgaard
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19 | 1'02.245 | 1.916 | 104.105 |
24 |
Jimmie Johnson
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 17 | 1'02.531 | 2.203 | 103.627 |
25 |
Tatiana Calderon
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 19 | 1'03.319 | 2.991 | 102.338 |
26 |
Helio Castroneves
|
Meyer Shank Racing | 19 | 1'03.464 | 3.136 | 102.104 |
View full results |
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