St. Pete IndyCar: Herta leads Sato in warm-up
Polesitter Colton Herta led the final practice session for this afternoon’s Firestone GP of St. Petersburg which was full of trips to runoff zones.
Drivers spent the session weighing up the pluses and minuses of running used softer alternate compound tires compared with the harder compound primaries, as the track evolves to be kinder to the Firestone ‘reds’.
Most drivers’ fastest laps came on that softer compound, and it was pole-winner Colton Herta who topped the times for Andretti Autosport-Honda, ahead of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda’s Takuma Sato.
Scott Dixon was top Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda ahead of fellow New Zealander and rookie Scott McLaughlin in the Team Penske-Chevrolet.
However, times didn’t come easy for many, as Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward, Dalton Kellett, all took trips down escape roads.
Some drivers had also acquired overnight scoops on top of their aeroscreens, in response to the rising humidity.
Romain Grosjean’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda was seen to be smoking from the right side of the engine in the final 10 minutes of the session, although the ex-Formula 1 driver did manage to complete 20 laps.
The 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at 12.40pm local (Eastern) time.
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 23 | 1'00.663 | 106.819 | |
| 2 |  Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 24 | 1'00.676 | 0.013 | 106.795 |
| 3 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 25 | 1'00.809 | 0.146 | 106.563 |
| 4 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 26 | 1'00.872 | 0.208 | 106.453 |
| 5 |  Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 25 | 1'00.941 | 0.278 | 106.332 |
| 6 |  Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 20 | 1'01.016 | 0.353 | 106.200 |
| 7 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 26 | 1'01.043 | 0.380 | 106.153 |
| 8 |  Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 21 | 1'01.100 | 0.437 | 106.054 |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 25 | 1'01.130 | 0.467 | 106.003 |
| 10 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 21 | 1'01.220 | 0.557 | 105.846 |
| 11 |  Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 19 | 1'01.331 | 0.668 | 105.656 |
| 12 |  Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 18 | 1'01.354 | 0.691 | 105.616 |
| 13 |  Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 24 | 1'01.385 | 0.722 | 105.562 |
| 14 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 26 | 1'01.397 | 0.734 | 105.542 |
| 15 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 21 | 1'01.412 | 0.749 | 105.516 |
| 16 |  Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 21 | 1'01.519 | 0.855 | 105.333 |
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 26 | 1'01.618 | 0.955 | 105.163 |
| 18 |  James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | 24 | 1'01.756 | 1.093 | 104.928 |
| 19 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 20 | 1'01.829 | 1.166 | 104.804 |
| 20 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 22 | 1'01.867 | 1.204 | 104.740 |
| 21 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 20 | 1'01.972 | 1.308 | 104.563 |
| 22 | Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 25 | 1'01.978 | 1.315 | 104.552 |
| 23 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 20 | 1'02.114 | 1.451 | 104.323 |
| 24 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 25 | 1'02.662 | 1.999 | 103.412 |
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | IndyCar |
| Event | St. Pete |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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