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Practice report

IndyCar St. Pete: Herta leads Dixon in raceday warm-up

With his last lap of the session, Colton Herta edged championship aspirant Scott Dixon to lead IndyCar’s half-hour warm-up session ahead of this afternoon’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Colton Herta, Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Honda

Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Herta, who will start third in his Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda, set a time of 61.6011sec on his 22nd and final tour of the 1.8-mile street/runway course to edge Dixon by 0.0243sec.

The Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda ace, survived a trip into the Turn 1 run-off zone, just after hitting top spot, and squeezed in 27 laps in the 30min session. He will roll off 11th as he guns for his sixth IndyCar championship.

Ganassi’s form looked strong, with Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson claiming third and 10th in the other CGR-Hondas, while Alexander Rossi – starting from the front row this afternoon – nabbed fourth spot.

Fastest Chevrolet runner was two-time St. Petersburg winner Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing.

James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay ensured three Andretti cars in the top 10, despite Hinchcliffe also making a trip into a runoff area, fortunately without damaging his car.

The only person who could beat Dixon to the title, Josef Newgarden, was ninth fastest, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Scott McLaughlin – making his IndyCar race debut today – and a couple of tenths up on yesterday’s pole-winner Will Power.

The race begins at 2.30pm local (Eastern) time on NBC in the U.S..

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 United States Colton Herta Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 22 1'01.601   105.193
2 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 27 1'01.625 0.024 105.151
3 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Chip Ganassi Racing 19 1'01.836 0.234 104.793
4 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 16 1'01.871 0.270 104.734
5 France Sébastien Bourdais United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 21 1'01.982 0.380 104.546
6 Canada James Hinchcliffe United States Andretti Autosport 26 1'01.991 0.390 104.531
7 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay United States Andretti Autosport 19 1'02.131 0.530 104.295
8 Japan Takuma Sato United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 26 1'02.213 0.612 104.157
9 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 25 1'02.246 0.645 104.102
10 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 23 1'02.265 0.664 104.070
11 Spain Alex Palou Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 21 1'02.276 0.675 104.052
12 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Meyer Shank Racing 21 1'02.292 0.691 104.025
13 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP 22 1'02.322 0.721 103.975
14 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19 1'02.326 0.725 103.968
15 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 27 1'02.338 0.737 103.949
16 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 26 1'02.450 0.848 103.763
17 United Kingdom Max Chilton United Kingdom Carlin 21 1'02.659 1.058 103.416
18 France Simon Pagenaud United States Team Penske 27 1'02.684 1.082 103.376
19 United States Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 19 1'02.695 1.094 103.356
20 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 24 1'02.746 1.145 103.273
21 United States Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 23 1'02.779 1.178 103.218
22 United States Oliver Askew Arrow McLaren SP 25 1'02.791 1.189 103.200
23 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 26 1'02.811 1.210 103.166
24 United States Charlie Kimball United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18 1'03.360 1.759 102.271

 

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