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Practice report

IndyCar St. Petersburg: Herta tops second practice as Dixon crashes

Colton Herta led Scott McLaughlin in second practice for the opening round of the 2023 IndyCar season, while yesterday’s fastest driver Scott Dixon crashed at Turn 4.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda

Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

Two-time St. Petersburg winner Josef Newgarden became the first driver of the session to make contact with the wall, bending the rear toelink of his Team Penske car at the exit of Turn 10.

Meanwhile, the Chip Ganassi Racing team was looking strong in the early minutes of the session, with Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson on top with a 1m01.001s, but 15 minutes in, it was the Arrow McLarens of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist in first and third, O’Ward being the first driver down into the 60-second bracket, with a 1m00.9306s.

The red flag came out five minutes later when Romain Grosjean spun his Andretti Autosport car into the grass on the outside of the final turn.

When action resumed, Rosenqvist had a nasty snap toward the Turn 3 wall that he rescued, but Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport was less lucky, making hard contact with the Turn 3 exit wall with both his front and rear left-side wheels.

He was able to limp back to the pits, but with 24 minutes remaining Dale Coyne Racing’s rookie Sting Ray Robb clipped the apex wall of Turn 3 which sent him into the outside wall and with little steering he bounced back across the track to hit the inside wall.

Rosenqvist was the first driver to run Firestone’s new alternate tyres, now green side-walled to mark the fact that they are constructed with rubber sourced from the guayule shrub. He inevitably jumped to the top, but was swiftly displaced by Grosjean who delivered a 1m00.805s on the primary compound tyres.

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

McLaughlin, St. Petersburg race-winner in 2022, displaced Grosjean, but then Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood strapped on the alternate tyres to deliver a 1m00.5701s, a mark that Rinus VeeKay further lowered for Ed Carpenter Racing. His 1m00.4601s, also set on alternates, was the first lap of the weekend to surpass the 107mph barrier.

With under 15 minutes left, Alex Palou sprung into the top three with the softer rubber, but then McLaughlin delivered a 1m00.2511s, and 2021 St. Petersburg winner Herta shaved 0.1732s from that to go top.

The caveat is that heavy traffic compromised several efforts on alternate tyres, including those of Ericsson and O’Ward, while yesterday’s pacesetter Dixon half-spinning hard into the tyre wall at the exit of Turn 4 interrupted Newgarden’s flyer on ‘greens’.

There was barely enough time for anyone to make a final qualifying simulation when the session resumed, and there were no improvements at the top of the times due to heavy traffic.

IndyCar St. Petersburg - FP2 results

P

Name

FTime

Diff

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Colton Herta

1:00.0779

1:00.0779

26

107.860

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

2

Scott McLaughlin

1:00.2511

0.1732

27

107.550

Chevy

A

Team Penske

3

Rinus VeeKay

1:00.4601

0.3822

20

107.178

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

4

Kyle Kirkwood

1:00.5294

0.4515

22

107.055

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

5

Alex Palou

1:00.6960

0.6181

29

106.762

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

6

Marcus Ericsson

1:00.7003

0.6224

27

106.754

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

7

Romain Grosjean

1:00.7680

0.6901

19

106.635

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

8

Felix Rosenqvist

1:00.8173

0.7394

18

106.549

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren

9

Alexander Rossi

1:00.8394

0.7615

23

106.510

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren

10

Pato O'Ward

1:00.9306

0.8527

21

106.351

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren

11

David Malukas

1:00.9707

0.8928

25

106.281

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

12

Jack Harvey

1:01.0326

0.9547

26

106.173

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

13

Scott Dixon

1:01.1383

1.0604

15

105.989

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

14

Christian Lundgaard

1:01.1459

1.0680

22

105.976

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

15

Josef Newgarden

1:01.2205

1.1426

26

105.847

Chevy

A

Team Penske

16

Helio Castroneves

1:01.2377

1.1598

24

105.817

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

17

Conor Daly

1:01.2629

1.1850

26

105.774

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

18

Simon Pagenaud

1:01.4110

1.3331

22

105.519

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

19

Will Power

1:01.4284

1.3505

27

105.489

Chevy

A

Team Penske

20

Marcus Armstrong

1:01.4818

1.4039

26

105.397

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

21

Callum Ilott

1:01.5098

1.4319

22

105.349

Chevy

A

Juncos Hollinger Racing

22

Agustin Canapino

1:01.7063

1.6284

24

105.014

Chevy

A

Juncos Holling Racing

23

Graham Rahal

1:01.8292

1.7513

22

104.805

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

24

Santino Ferrucci

1:01.8862

1.8083

24

104.708

Chevy

P

AJ Foyt Enterprises

25

Benjamin Pedersen

1:02.9862

2.9083

26

102.880

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

26

Sting Ray Robb

1:03.2272

3.1493

9

102.488

Honda

P

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

27

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:04.0365

3.9586

4

101.192

Honda

P

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

 

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