St Petersburg IndyCar: Foyt's rookie Leist leads first practice
AJ Foyt Racing's rookie Matheus Leist topped the first practice session of the 2018 IndyCar season in St Petersburg
Leist's team-mate Tony Kanaan had led the way for most of the session on a street course considered unrepresentative due to lack of running and cooler temperatures.
But as more drivers lapped and the track rubbered in, Leist climbed inside the top 10 in the final 15 minutes.
He then set his fastest lap, a 1m01.7231s, in the final two minutes of the first practice.
Dale Coyne Racing's Sebastien Bourdais (pictured below), who won the race last year, put in a last minute lap to go second and was 0.0488 seconds slower than Leist.
Bourdais' time sent the two Andretti cars of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi into third and fourth after the pair had battled for the top spot in the final 10 minutes.
Hunter-Reay and Rossi were among several drivers from the top three teams of Penske, Andretti and Chip Ganassi Racing who waited for the track to rubber in somewhat before joining.
Ganassi's Scott Dixon was another to take that approach and progressively improved his time through the running to go fifth fastest late on.
Former DTM driver Robert Wickens completed his first session as a full-time IndyCar driver for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in sixth and completed 20 laps, tied for the second most tours.
Penske's Simon Pagenaud was the team's quickest driver, running as high as third before falling to seventh.
Team-mate Will Power was eighth ahead of Kanaan, who caused the only red flag by spinning at the sharp-right Turn 4 following his early leaderboard-topping time.
Spencer Pigot was 10th ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing team-mate Jordan King.
Reigning champion Josef Newgarden could only finish 13th.
Carlin duo Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball were 20th and 21st on the team's IndyCar debut, ahead of last year's Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato.
FP1 times
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matheus Leist | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.7231s | - | 20 |
| 2 | Sebastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.7719s | 0.0488s | 15 |
| 3 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.8812s | 0.1581s | 14 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.0415s | 0.3184s | 15 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.0560s | 0.3329s | 16 |
| 6 | Robert Wickens | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.1833s | 0.4602s | 20 |
| 7 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.2162s | 0.4931s | 16 |
| 8 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.3069s | 0.5838s | 17 |
| 9 | Tony Kanaan | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.3370s | 0.6139s | 16 |
| 10 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.3565s | 0.6334s | 14 |
| 11 | Jordan King | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.4112s | 0.6881s | 15 |
| 12 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.4659s | 0.7428s | 16 |
| 13 | Ed Jones | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.6148s | 0.8917s | 20 |
| 14 | Zachary Claman | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.7376s | 1.0145s | 21 |
| 15 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.7667s | 1.0436s | 17 |
| 16 | Zach Veach | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.7902s | 1.0671s | 20 |
| 17 | Jack Harvey | Michael Shank Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.8416s | 1.1185s | 21 |
| 18 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.8843s | 1.1612s | 14 |
| 19 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m03.0515s | 1.3284s | 12 |
| 20 | Max Chilton | Carlin | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m03.3742s | 1.6511s | 18 |
| 21 | Charlie Kimball | Carlin | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m03.6210s | 1.8979s | 18 |
| 22 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m03.6243s | 1.9012s | 13 |
| 23 | Gabby Chaves | Harding Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m04.1845s | 2.4614s | 17 |
| 24 | Rene Binder | Juncos Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m04.8859s | 3.1628s | 19 |
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