Matheus Leist got his IndyCar career off to a flying start by clocking a 61.7231sec lap of the 1.8-mile street/runway course in his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet to grab top spot.

The Brazilian teenager was 0.0488sec ahead of defending race winner Sebastien Bourdais in the #18 Dale Coyne Racing-Honda, with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi third and fourth for Andretti Autosport.

Four-time champion Scott Dixon left it late to thrown in a P5 lap ahead of another rookie, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Robert Wickens, with Simon Pagenaud and Will Power seventh and eight for Penske-Chevrolet.

The second Foyt car of Tony Kanaan was ninth ahead of the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevys of Spencer Pigot and Jordan King, while Graham Rahal was 12^th.

Ed Jones in the second Ganassi car was the last driver within one second of Leist.

Rookie Zach Veach was 16^th, just behind reigning champion Josef Newgarden, while Jack Harvey was narrowly ahead of Marco Andretti and SPM teammate James Hinchcliffe.

Carlin’s first ever official IndyCar practice session saw Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball in 20^th and 21^st, while Juncos was 24^th with Rene Binder at the wheel.

Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, free practice 1

Cla	#	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	4	Matheus Leist	20	1'01.7231			104.985
2	18	Sébastien Bourdais	15	1'01.7719	0.0488	0.0488	104.902
3	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	14	1'01.8812	0.1581	0.1093	104.717
4	27	Alexander Rossi	15	1'02.0415	0.3184	0.1603	104.446
5	9	Scott Dixon	16	1'02.0560	0.3329	0.0145	104.422
6	6	Robert Wickens	20	1'02.1833	0.4602	0.1273	104.208
7	22	Simon Pagenaud	16	1'02.2162	0.4931	0.0329	104.153
8	12	Will Power	17	1'02.3069	0.5838	0.0907	104.001
9	14	Tony Kanaan	16	1'02.3370	0.6139	0.0301	103.951
10	21	Spencer Pigot	14	1'02.3565	0.6334	0.0195	103.919
11	20	Jordan King	15	1'02.4112	0.6881	0.0547	103.828
12	15	Graham Rahal	16	1'02.4659	0.7428	0.0547	103.737
13	10	Ed Jones	20	1'02.6148	0.8917	0.1489	103.490
14	19	Zachary Claman DeMelo	21	1'02.7376	1.0145	0.1228	103.287
15	1	Josef Newgarden	17	1'02.7667	1.0436	0.0291	103.239
16	26	Zach Veach	20	1'02.7902	1.0671	0.0235	103.201
17	60	Jack Harvey	21	1'02.8416	1.1185	0.0514	103.116
18	98	Marco Andretti	14	1'02.8843	1.1612	0.0427	103.046
19	5	James Hinchcliffe	12	1'03.0515	1.3284	0.1672	102.773
20	59	Max Chilton	18	1'03.3742	1.6511	0.3227	102.250
21	23	Charlie Kimball	18	1'03.6210	1.8979	0.2468	101.853
22	30	Takuma Sato	13	1'03.6243	1.9012	0.0033	101.848
23	88	Gabby Chaves	17	1'04.1845	2.4614	0.5602	100.959
24	32	Rene Binder	19	1'04.8859	3.1628	0.7014	99.868