Yahoo Autos Rosenqvist tops opening St. Petersburg IndyCar practice
Felix Rosenqvist is known as a street course specialist, and St. Peterburg has always been among his favorites, which made for a happy debut with Meyer Shank Racing as the Swede placed the No. 60 Honda atop the times for the 27-car field.
Rosenqvist’s 1m.3390s tour around the 1.8-mile circuit was well clear of his former teammate Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren in the No. 5 Chevy (+0.4722s), Marcus Armstrong in the No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (+0.4792s), Team Penske’s Will Power in the No. 12 Honda (+0.5019s), Rinus VeeKay in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy (+0.5458s), and in sixth, Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (+0.5716s) was in the thick of a pack with the No. 3 Chevy that was covered by 0.1s.
“I think it’s just been really nice to come to Meyer Shank Racing, it’s been super-easy transition,” Rosenqvist said after completing the hot and humid outing. “Both with people and the car, which is nice.”
The 75-minute session was one of experimentation by the series with the opening 20 minutes made available to all cars, followed by 10-minute runs in split groups. Red flags made for shortened segments for some, which limited their ability to post fast laps.
The timing of red flags during some of those 10-minute blasts meant some drivers had limited or no time on the faster alternate tires which are used in qualifying. With one set made available for teams to use in the first practice session alone, some drivers were able to complete clean qualifying simulations while others did not, and as expected, their lap times suffered.
Among those who were pleased with their days, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean was a strong seventh while Arrow McLaren newcomer Callum Ilott was 10th and new Dale Coyne Racing driver Jack Harvey was 21st, ahead of two of his former Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammates.
The list of drivers who were adrift from their normal placings was long, starting with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in ninth. Josef Newgarden was 11th, slowest of the Penske trio, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was not expecting to end the opening session in 13th. RLL’s Graham Rahal in 22nd and Pietro Fittipaldi in 26th only added to the surprising results.
Colton Herta was Andretti Global’s quickest representative in eighth, but Andretti wasn’t expecting Kyle Kirkwood to be 14th and Marcus Ericsson in 17th.
Among the various spins and stalls, no damage was recorded.
Action resumes Saturday morning with a 45-minute session held within a one-hour slot between 9:35-10:35am ET.
