Scott Dixon has a steeper climb after crashing out in opening practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The New Zealander was getting up to speed on a fresh set of the softer Firestone alternate (red sidewall) tires during Group 1 running of the session when he got loose in Turn 9 and pounded the outside wall. The contact, which was narrowly avoided by Team Penske’s David Malukas, was nearly head-on and sheared the nose and a portion of the left-front of his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The incident brought out a red flag with less than three minutes remaining in the initial group running.
