Practice report
IndyCar St. Pete
IndyCar St. Pete: Herta tops first practice, McLaughlin stars
Colton Herta put Andretti Autosport-Honda top in opening practice for the IndyCar season finale, but Team Penske Chevrolet’s Scott McLaughlin was only half a second slower in his first official session in the series.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Oct 24, 2020, 6:16 PM
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Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist was the first driver to duck into the 61sec bracket, turning a 1min01.8248sec lap of the 1.8-mile street and runway course, an average speed of 104.812mph.
Then with 25mins remaining, eight-time St. Pete polesitter Will Power of Team Penske-Chevrolet joined him in that bracket and next time by eclipsed him with a 61.6276.
Soon after, Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan, rookie Alex Palou of Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, and Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing were also in that 61sec zone.
After outbraking himself at Turn 3, Bourdais channeled his frustration into brilliance and sprung to P2. Then Marcus Ericsson of Ganassi headed into the Top 3.
But the next star of the show was Scott McLaughlin, in his IndyCar debut, strapping on fresh primaries and all-but matching teammate Power’s P1 time.
The three-time Supercars champion – confirmed yesterday as an IndyCar full-timer in 2021 – made a couple of errors on his first flyer on alternates but appeared to be getting it right on his third until running into Turn 10 runoff.
However, the session had already been red-flagged with five minutes to go, as Rosenqvist spun and stalled heading into the final turn.
Meanwhile, James Hinchcliffe and then Andretti Autosport teammate Herta had moved the benchmark to 61.2279 and 61.1306sec respectively.
The session restarted with just 2m30sec remaining, but then Oliver Askew – returning to the #7 Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet after a one-event absence – skated straight on at the final turn and nosed into the tire barrier, while McLaughlin made a similar error without contact, and so the session ended under red.
Palou grabbed third ahead of Sato and Bourdais, while Alexander Rossi was sixth but needed his toe-link replaced after tagging a wall.
Other drivers made wall contact, including Ganassi's championship leader Scott Dixon ,who reported that the Firestone alternate tires go through a lull before offering their ultimate grip. He finished the session in 16th, just behind his teammates, but said the car was plenty fast enough and that his best lap had been ruined by a red flag.
The only man who can prevent Dixon taking the title, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, finished the session in eighth, just ahead of Power and McLaughlin, and just behind Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, who will claim IndyCar Rookie of the Year honors when he starts the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg tomorrow.
Qualifying begins at 3.05pm local (Eastern) time and reverts back to the normal IndyCar method of knockout qualifying. With one second covering the top 21 cars, it promises to be very tight.
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph 1 Colton Herta
Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 33 1'01.130 106.003 2 James Hinchcliffe
Andretti Autosport 37 1'01.227 0.097 105.834 3
Alex Palou
Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 44 1'01.431 0.301 105.483 4 Takuma Sato
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 33 1'01.482 0.351 105.396 5
Sébastien Bourdais
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 41 1'01.515 0.384 105.340 6
Alexander Rossi
Andretti Autosport 31 1'01.578 0.447 105.232 7
Rinus van Kalmthout
Ed Carpenter Racing 44 1'01.612 0.482 105.173 8
Josef Newgarden
Team Penske 36 1'01.620 0.489 105.161 9
Will Power
Team Penske 38 1'01.627 0.497 105.148 10
Scott McLaughlin
Team Penske 45 1'01.677 0.546 105.063 11
Santino Ferrucci
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 39 1'01.695 0.564 105.032 12 Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti Autosport 34 1'01.707 0.577 105.011 13
Oliver Askew
Arrow McLaren SP 36 1'01.722 0.591 104.987 14 Marcus Ericsson
Chip Ganassi Racing 45 1'01.727 0.596 104.978 15
Felix Rosenqvist
Chip Ganassi Racing 42 1'01.729 0.598 104.975 16
Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing 36 1'01.845 0.715 104.777 17
Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren SP 32 1'01.872 0.741 104.732 18 Simon Pagenaud
Team Penske 35 1'01.876 0.745 104.725 19
Conor Daly
Ed Carpenter Racing 36 1'01.921 0.791 104.648 20
Marco Andretti
Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 31 1'01.993 0.862 104.528 21 Charlie Kimball
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 37 1'02.125 0.994 104.305 22
Jack Harvey
Meyer Shank Racing 32 1'02.168 1.038 104.232 23
Max Chilton
Carlin 35 1'02.215 1.085 104.153 24
Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 40 1'02.326 1.196 103.968 View full results
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