Herta on top again in Wednesday morning session

Colton Herta, the 2018 Indy Lights runner-up, went three-for-three in leading the IndyCar Spring Training session in the morning of Day 2.

The Harding Steinbrenner Racing-Honda left it until 13mins to go in the two-hour session before turning up the wick and lapping the 3.427-mile course in 1min46.6401sec.

That beat his semi-teammate, Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, by 0.3731sec, and eclipsed the fastest Chevrolet entry – Simon Pagenaud’s Team Penske machine – by over half a second.

Scott Dixon was one of five spinners, along with Jack Harvey, Kyle Kaiser, James Hinchcliffe and Spencer Pigot, but the reigning champion went out soon after and nailed a 1min47.7899sec, barely edging the second Penske of 2017 champ Josef Newgarden.

Hinchcliffe was swiftly able to rejoin the fray following his spin, but the team then discovered a fluid leak and the car was returned to the garage, having only completed seven laps.

Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda was sixth quickest ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and second fastest rookie, Felix Rosenqvist wheeling the second Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.

Sebastien Bourdais bounced back from a disappointing Tuesday to grab P9 on his last flying lap in the Dale Coyne Racing-Honda, while Carlin’s RC Enerson made it three rookies in the top 10.

AJ Foyt Racing also had a better day, series sophomore Matheus Leist and Tony Kanaan clocking 15th and 17th fastest.

This afternoon’s session runs from 1pm until 5pm local (Central) time.

Testing times:

Pos.	No	Driver	Lap	Gap	Laps	Engine	Team
1	88	Colton Herta	1:46.640	--.----	11	Honda	Harding Steinbrenner Racing
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1:47.013	0.3731	18	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:47.212	0.5715	20	Chevy	Team Penske
4	9	Scott Dixon	1:47.790	1.1498	13	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	2	Josef Newgarden	1:47.814	1.1735	20	Chevy	Team Penske
6	60	Jack Harvey	1:47.889	1.2491	21	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:47.903	1.2630	17	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	10	Felix Rosenqvist	1:47.984	1.3442	16	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	18	Sebastien Bourdais	1:48.017	1.3765	18	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
10	23	RC Enerson	1:48.156	1.5160	21	Chevy	Carlin
11	3	Helio Castroneves	1:48.183	1.5424	17	Chevy	Team Penske
12	12	Will Power	1:48.207	1.5671	22	Chevy	Team Penske
13	15	Graham Rahal	1:48.379	1.7394	20	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14	26	Zach Veach	1:48.389	1.7490	20	Honda	Andretti Autosport
15	4	Matheus Leist	1:48.600	1.9594	26	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
16	98	Marco Andretti	1:48.610	1.9697	21	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport
17	14	Tony Kanaan	1:48.651	2.0105	23	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
18	7	Marcus Ericsson	1:48.662	2.0222	14	Honda	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
19	59	Max Chilton	1:48.737	2.0967	16	Chevy	Carlin
20	21	Spencer Pigot	1:48.871	2.2309	11	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	20	Ed Jones	1:48.963	2.3234	18	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	32	Kyle Kaiser	1:48.980	2.3394	24	Chevy	Juncos Racing
23	19	Santino Ferrucci	1:49.146	2.5062	12	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
24	5	James Hinchcliffe	1:49.163	2.5225	7	Honda	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
25	30	Takuma Sato	1:49.237	2.5972	27	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing