St Petersburg IndyCar: Takuma Sato quickest in second practice
Takuma Sato took the honours in the second practice session for this weekend's IndyCar season-opener at St Petersburg by edging out Graham Rahal to set the fastest time
Sato's best lap of 1m02.5615s came near the end of his run, and was enough to keep the AJ Foyt driver ahead of fellow Honda driver Rahal by 0.05s.
Third fastest Will Power was again the best of the Chevy entries with a time just 0.03s down on Rahal's.
Minor incidents prompted three brief spells under red flags; the first coming early on courtesy of a spin by new KV signing Sebastian Saavedra.
That was followed later by Josef Newgarden, who was pitched into the run-off after suffering a steering problem, and the hat-trick was completed when BHA rookie Jack Hawksworth had a minor brush with the tyres at Turn 12 with five minutes left on the clock.
The Briton was able to return his car to the pits under its own power.
As was the case this morning, Ryan Briscoe was the fastest of the Ganassi drivers with a time that was good enough for sixth fastest, two places ahead of reigning champion Scott Dixon.
Further back, Juan Pablo Montoya continued the process of reacquainting himself with street courses after a six-year break and ended the session in 19th.
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time Gap Laps 1. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 1m02.5615s 23 2. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 1m02.6122s +0.0507s 23 3. Will Power Penske/Chevy 1m02.6443s +0.0321s 25 4. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 1m02.8178s +0.1735s 24 5. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 1m02.9129s +0.0951s 21 6. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy 1m03.0142s +0.1013s 17 7. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda 1m03.0301s +0.0159s 16 8. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy 1m03.0510s +0.0209s 24 9. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 1m03.0671s +0.0161s 22 10. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 1m03.0793s +0.0122s 18 11. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 1m03.1796s +0.1003s 17 12. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda 1m03.1814s +0.0018s 21 13. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 1m03.2045s +0.0231s 21 14. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 1m03.2846s +0.0801s 14 15. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy 1m03.3067s +0.0221s 19 16. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 1m03.3812s +0.0745s 17 17. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 1m03.4077s +0.0265s 21 18. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy 1m03.4624s +0.0547s 19 19. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 1m03.5476s +0.0852s 16 20. Mike Conway Carpenter/Chevy 1m03.6336s +0.0860s 21 21. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 1m03.8422s +0.2086s 19 22. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda 1m04.3481s +0.5059s 21
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