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David Malsher-Lopez

St. Pete IndyCar: Herta, Kirkwood top raceday warm-up

There was plenty of experimentation with tires in the 78 degree heat and increasing humidity under cloudy skies. Firestone’s guayule-sidewalled tires had a noticeable peak for one lap – two by the gentlest driver/car combinations – but drivers and race engineers still needed to know how long they could make them last in what will be a 100-lap race dominated by the primary tire.

Colton Herta, who will start from the outside of the front row alongside his Andretti Autosport teammate Romain Grosjean, was also seen experimenting with the inside line into the wide Turn 1. The paint on the runway of Albert Whitted Airport can make outbraking maneuvers particularly difficult, with rubber build-up off-line exacerbating the problem.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who will start from 14th this afternoon, looked particularly strong and consistent on alternates but a major caveat there is that (unlike in qualifying), he seemed to have clear track much more than his rivals.

Late in the session, Chip Ganassi Racing’s 2021 champion Alex Palou was spotted practicing restarts on primary tires, gauging how much grip there was when getting on the power through the long horseshoe-shaped final turn.

Herta and new teammate Kyle Kirkwood topped the session, ahead of Scott Dixon who sideswiped the Turn 3 wall with three minutes to go, but stayed out with apparently no structural damage.

Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing was fourth ahead of the Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet of Callum Ilott, Newgarden and Palou.

Late in the session, defending IndyCar champion Will Power jumped to eighth running on Firestone’s primary tires, while teammate Newgarden and Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist visited the Turn 10 escape road.

The 20th running of the GP of St. Petersburg will get the green flag at 12.30pm local (Eastern) time.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 20 1'00.5886   106.951
2 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 22 1'00.7213 0.1327 106.717
3 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 22 1'00.8377 0.2491 106.513
4 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 24 1'00.9833 0.3947 106.259
5 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 26 1'01.0320 0.4434 106.174
6 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 26 1'01.0405 0.4519 106.159
7 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 22 1'01.1932 0.6046 105.894
8 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 26 1'01.2204 0.6318 105.847
9 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 22 1'01.2490 0.6604 105.798
10 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 26 1'01.2596 0.6710 105.779
11 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 26 1'01.2888 0.7002 105.729
12 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 23 1'01.3403 0.7517 105.640
13 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19 1'01.3780 0.7894 105.575
14 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong United States Chip Ganassi Racing 26 1'01.4183 0.8297 105.506
15 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 22 1'01.4406 0.8520 105.468
16 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 23 1'01.4864 0.8978 105.389
17 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 24 1'01.4935 0.9049 105.377
18 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 26 1'01.5159 0.9273 105.339
19 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 22 1'01.5381 0.9495 105.301
20 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 23 1'01.5382 0.9496 105.300
21 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 26 1'01.8739 1.2853 104.729
22 Agustin Canapino United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 19 1'01.9456 1.3570 104.608
23 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 24 1'02.0744 1.4858 104.391
24 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 23 1'02.1967 1.6081 104.186
25 Ray Robb United States Dale Coyne Racing 21 1'02.5812 1.9926 103.545
26 United States Santino Ferrucci United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 23 1'02.7215 2.1329 103.314
27 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20 1'03.1406 2.5520 102.628

 

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