Friday at St. Petersburg

Published on 08 Mar 2019 21:42

By: Fergal Walsh

The 2019 IndyCar season got underway on Friday, with St. Petersburg, Flordia hosting the opening day of running.

Robert Wickens was back in the paddock for the event, following his crash at Pocono last year that left him with severe injuries. The Canadian continues to recover while Schmidt Peterson Motorsport leaves his #6 car empty, ready to go for when he returns.

Free practice one

The first practice sessions kicked off the year, with no major dramas coming in the opening 30 minutes. Rookie Ben Hanley's session came to a premature end when his DragonSpeed car ground to a halt at Turn 4.

However, other first-timers found some joy, as Chip Ganassi's Felix Rosenqvist topped the timesheets after the first practice session. Fellow compatriot at former Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson was third, while Ryan Hunter-Reay was second.

The two title favourites Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi were fourth and fifth. Takuma Sato was sixth, ahead of Josef Newgarden and Graham Rahal with the latter driver grinding the wall during the session.

Zach Veach was ninth while the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power rounded out the top ten.

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Driver Felix Rosenqvist	Team Chip Ganassi Racing	Time 1:01.8215	Gap -
2	Driver Ryan Hunter-Reay	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:02.0636	Gap 0.2421
3	Driver Marcus Ericsson	Team Schmidt Peterson Racing	Time 1:02.0811	Gap 0.2596
4	Driver Scott Dixon	Team Chip Ganassi Racing	Time 1:02.1309	Gap 0.3094
5	Driver Alexander Rossi	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:02.1470	Gap 0.3255
6	Driver Takuma Sato	Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Time 1:02.1571	Gap 0.3356
7	Driver Josef Newgarden	Team Team Penske	Time 1:02.1740	Gap 0.3525
8	Driver Graham Rahal	Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Time 1:02.1852	Gap 0.3637
9	Driver Zach Veach	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:02.1925	Gap 0.3710
10	Driver Will Power	Team Team Penske	Time 1:02.2758	Gap 0.4543

Free practice two

The second free practice session saw the drivers get a taste for the red-walled Firestone tyres, the softer of the compounds available to the teams.

Hunter-Reay topped the session ahead of a Spencer Pigot, a surprise finishing position for the 25-year-old American. The top two were the only drivers to set 60 second lap times during the day.

Marco Andretti was third, ahead of Colton Herta who was the only rookie to end the session inside the top ten. Carlin showed impressive pace, with Max Chilton and Charlie ending up fifth and eighth respectively.

Lodged between the two Carlins was Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe. Hinchliffe's teammate Marcus Ericsson didn't replicate the pace from his opening IndyCar outing, and brushed the wall on his fast lap.

Team Penske rounded out the top ten with Josef Newgarden leading Will Power.

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Driver Ryan Hunter-Reay	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:00.8969	Gap -
2	Driver Spencer Pigot	Team Ed Carpenter Racing	Time 1:00.9812	Gap 0.0843
3	Driver Marco Andretti	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:01.0351	Gap 0.1382
4	Driver Colton Herta	Team Harding Steinbrenner Racing	Time 1:01.0776	Gap 0.1807
5	Driver Max Chilton	Team Carlin Racing	Time 1:01.1171	Gap 0.2202
6	Driver Alexander Rossi	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:01.1388	Gap 0.2419
7	Driver James Hinchcliffe	Team Schmidt Peterson Motorsport	Time 1:01.1453	Gap 0.2484
8	Driver Charlie Kimball	Team Carlon Racing	Time 1:01.1681	Gap 0.2712
9	Driver Josef Newgarden	Team Team Penske	Time 1:01.1811	Gap 0.2842
10	Driver Will Power	Team Team Penske	Time 1:01.1896	Gap 0.2927

Action from St. Petersburg resumes tomorrow morning at 10:25 ET with the final practice session, before qualifying for Sunday's race kicks off in the afternoon.

Photos IndyCar St. Petersburg 2019