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David Malsher-Lopez

St. Pete IndyCar: Dixon leads Herta in opening practice

The first red flag of the session was caused by Benjamin Pedersen locking up into Turn 4, the car trying to swivel left, and making hard contact with its left front wing against the wall.

The second red flag was caused by a concrete patch of the track on the exit of fifth-gear Turn 3 coming up, and needing clearing. By then the remaining three rookies – Marcus Armstrong (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda), Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda) and Agustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet) – had laid down their first five laps, since newbies are granted an extra set of tires.

Following the red flag, most of the top drivers immediately hit the track, and 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood hit top spot with a 62.6101 for Andretti Autosport-Honda.

There was then briefly a Swedish 1-2, with Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren –Chevrolet ahead of Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), until Ericsson’s teammate, 2021 champion Alex Palou lowered the benchmark to 62.2118sec – first driver into the 104mph laps.

Kirkwood was a long way from being done, though, and delivered a 61.8019sec on his seventh lap, with teammate Romain Grosjean going second, albeit 0.3sec behind.

The third red emerged with 43mins remaining, caused by Simon Pagenaud spinning his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda into the Turn 4 escape road and then stalling.

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s defending had an alarming tail-out moment exiting the penultimate corner after damaging a right-rear toelink against a wall. That was easily fixed, and he wasted little time in moving into the top four once back on track.

Colton Herta made it in an Andretti 1-2-3 with his first representative flyer, albeit 0.2777 off Kirkwood, who had gotten his best mark down to 61.6851sec.

That left a nice hole for David Malukas to fill with his Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports-Honda to get within 0.18sec of his old Lights sparring partner Kirkwood.

With 16mins to go, Christian Lundgaard smacked the Turn 3 wall hard enough in the #45 Hy-Vee Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda to end his session early although he limped back to the pits without assistance. Teammate Graham Rahal, however, who had already gone into Turn 4 run-off and tried to change the balance of the car on pitlane, revisited the same run-off after locking up and then stalling. He drove slowly back to the pits.

Josef Newgarden had a four-wheel drift into the wall that necessitated repairs, while teammate McLaughlin had another moment at Turn 3, but not before Alex Palou delivered top time, a 61.6790sec on his 23rd lap.

With under three minutes to go, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet’s Rinus VeeKay went third fastest, 0.1724sec off the top, with six-time champion Scott Dixon moving into fourth, and his Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong less than one-tenth behind. Then Dixon went fastest at 61.6145sec, a mere 0.0645 faster than Palou, with Herta managing to split them on his final flyer.

Pagenaud jumped into the top five in the closing couple of minutes too, so that the top five were covered by less than a tenth of a second.

VeeKay’s time was good enough to retain sixth as fastest Chevrolet driver, with Malukas separating him from Will Power, defending IndyCar Series champion in eighth.

Armstrong was far and away the best rookie, finishing his first official session in ninth, 0.33sec behind teammate and compatriot Dixon, but just ahead of another compatriot, McLaughlin.

Pato O’Ward nipped teammate Rosenqvist by 0.09sec, the latter surviving an alarming fishtail moment into Turn 1, while their new teammate Alexander Rossi ended the session in 21st.

Canapino ended his first ever open-wheel session an impressive 19th, albeit having been the sole driver to run a set of soft, green sidewalled Firestones. Juncos Hollinger teammate Callum Ilott was 12th.

Second practice begins at 10.00am local (Eastern) time.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 29 1'01.6145   105.170
2 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 25 1'01.6475 0.0330 105.114
3 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 25 1'01.6790 0.0645 105.060
4 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 26 1'01.6851 0.0706 105.050
5 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 28 1'01.6963 0.0818 105.031
6 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 25 1'01.8514 0.2369 104.767
7 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 24 1'01.8613 0.2468 104.750
8 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 27 1'01.8915 0.2770 104.699
9 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong United States Chip Ganassi Racing 35 1'01.9444 0.3299 104.610
10 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 26 1'01.9882 0.3737 104.536
11 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 23 1'02.0177 0.4032 104.486
12 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 25 1'02.0360 0.4215 104.455
13 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 29 1'02.0733 0.4588 104.393
14 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 30 1'02.1064 0.4919 104.337
15 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 26 1'02.1094 0.4949 104.332
16 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 26 1'02.2507 0.6362 104.095
17 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 26 1'02.3236 0.7091 103.973
18 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 25 1'02.3290 0.7145 103.964
19 Agustin Canapino United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 34 1'02.3629 0.7484 103.908
20 United States Santino Ferrucci United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 29 1'02.4032 0.7887 103.841
21 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 22 1'02.4616 0.8471 103.744
22 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 17 1'02.5150 0.9005 103.655
23 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 29 1'02.5480 0.9335 103.600
24 Ray Robb United States Dale Coyne Racing 37 1'02.8157 1.2012 103.159
25 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 13 1'03.0412 1.4267 102.790
26 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 18 1'03.1389 1.5244 102.631
27 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 26 1'03.5134 1.8989 102.026

 

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