Herta lands first blow in IndyCar Spring Training

The 2018 Indy Lights runner-up wheeled his #88 HSR-Honda to a best lap of 1min48.7443sec around the 3.427-mile course, edging fellow rookie Marcus Ericsson of Arrow Schmidt Peterson-Honda by 0.0949sec with an average speed of 112.889mph.

Third fastest was the quickest Chevrolet, the Team Penske entry of 2017 champion Josef Newgarden, who beat another rookie – RC Enerson in the Carlin-Chevy – by 0.19sec.

Zach Veach and Marco Andretti were top of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas, ahead of defending champion Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, while Spencer Pigot (Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy), Alexander Rossi (Andretti) and Max Chilton (Carlin) completed the top 10.

Felix Rosenqvist was 12^th in the second Ganassi entry, Santino Ferrucci was sandwiched by two Penske cars in his Dale Coyne Racing entry and was also faster than teammate Sebastien Bourdais. Helio Castroneves is in a fourth Penske, preparing for May's IndyCar Grand Prix on the Indianapolis road course.

Matheus Leist was 11^th, 1.6sec ahead of Tony Kanaan in the second AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy, while Kyle Kaiser’s Juncos Racing-Chevy failed to set a representative time after suffering clutch problems.