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Practice report

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

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 United States Colton Herta
United States Andretti Autosport 19 1'00.328 107.412
2 United States Josef Newgarden
United States Team Penske 21 1'00.597 0.268 106.936
3 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 18 1'00.831 0.502 106.524
4 United Kingdom Callum Ilott
Juncos Hollinger Racing 21 1'01.093 0.765 106.067
5 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 16 1'01.187 0.859 105.903
6 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
United States Team Penske 20 1'01.195 0.866 105.891
7 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'01.206 0.878 105.871
8 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
United States Arrow McLaren SP 18 1'01.283 0.955 105.738
9 United States Kyle Kirkwood
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 16 1'01.334 1.006 105.650
10 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Dale Coyne Racing 20 1'01.359 1.031 105.607
11 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 17 1'01.479 1.151 105.401
12 United States Graham Rahal
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 23 1'01.522 1.194 105.327
13 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 22 1'01.547 1.219 105.284
14 United Kingdom Jack Harvey
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20 1'01.572 1.244 105.242
15 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
United States Andretti Autosport 20 1'01.661 1.333 105.090
16 United States David Malukas
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 21 1'01.725 1.396 104.982
17 United States Conor Daly
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 17 1'01.805 1.476 104.846
18 France Simon Pagenaud
United States Meyer Shank Racing 17 1'01.964 1.635 104.577
19 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
United States Arrow McLaren SP 19 1'01.971 1.642 104.565
20 Canada Dalton Kellett
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20 1'01.975 1.647 104.558
21 France Romain Grosjean
United States Andretti Autosport 18 1'01.988 1.660 104.535
22 United States Alexander Rossi
United States Andretti Autosport 19 1'02.234 1.905 104.123
23 Denmark Christian Lundgaard
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19 1'02.245 1.916 104.105
24 United States Jimmie Johnson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'02.531 2.203 103.627
25 Colombia Tatiana Calderon
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 19 1'03.319 2.991 102.338
26 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Meyer Shank Racing 19 1'03.464 3.136 102.104

 

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