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Scott Dixon has set the pace in a bruising IndyCar Practice 1 at St Petersburg as both Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, among others, hit the wall.
There were three red flags in the 75-minute session but several more local yellows as drivers up and down the field struggled with the bumpy St Petersburg street circuit and a new brake compound.
The vast majority of the field ran on primary tyres only, with Dixon setting the pace courtesy of a 1:01.6145s in the final two minutes in the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta went second after the chequered flag on a 1:01.6475s in the #26 Honda, from Alex Palou (#10 Ganassi Honda), Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Honda), and Simon Pagenaud (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda).
Rounding out the top 10 were Rinus VeeKay (#21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet), David Malukas (#18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda), Will Power (#12 Team Penske Chevrolet), rookie Marcus Armstrong (#11 Ganassi Honda), and 2022 St Petersburg race winner McLaughlin (#3 Penske Chevrolet).
After a late start to proceedings, just two drivers had set anything resembling a representative lap time when one of them, AJ Foyt rookie Benjamin Pedersen, brought about a red flag in the 11th minute when he got all crossed up at Turn 4 and crashed.
The hit was a glancing blow to the front wing and the Dane was able to drive the #55 Chevrolet back to the pits once his engine was refired, before another red flag was called in the 22nd minute to assess the track surface, specifically break-up of a concrete patch at the exit of Turn 3.
Armstrong was classified first on a 1:02.8901s when the field was let loose again and the big guns rolled out.
Fellow New Zealander McLaughlin moved the marker to a 1:02.8632s before Kirkwood, 2022 IndyCar champion Power, Felix Rosenqvist (#6 McLaren Chevrolet), and then Palou went to the top.
Kirkwood had reclaimed the ascendancy with a 1:01.8019s when Pagenaud half-spun and stalled at Turn 4, bringing about a third red flag period just past the half-hour mark.
It could very easily have been McLaughlin causing the stoppage instead, glancing the wall at Turn 10 and then making a big catch at Turn 12 when his #3 Chevrolet got loose and kicked up the dirt.
He was able to go back out and find more time, rising to fourth on a 1:02.1570s with half an hour to go, by which time Kirkwood had improved further to a 1:01.6851s.
Palou clocked a 1:01.6790s in the 69th minute before, with less than three minutes to go, Dixon went fourth on a 1:01.8539s and backed that up with what would prove the very fastest lap of the session next time around.
While VeeKay finished fifth, he too had a brush with the concrete, on entry to Turn 10 in the final minutes of the session.
McLaughlin would hit the wall a second time, bumping the left-rear on the barriers exiting Turn 3 in the latter stages, after team-mate Newgarden (#2 Chevrolet) had glanced the wall exiting Turn 9 in the 62nd minute.
The two-time IndyCar champion ended up 22nd on the timesheet, three positions up on Christian Lundgaard (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda), who slapped the wall on cold tyres at Turn 3 in the final 20 minutes.
Practice 2 starts on Saturday at 10:00 ET/Sunday at 02:00 AEDT and then Qualifying from 14:15 ET/06:15 AEDT, with both of those sessions live and ad-free on Stan Sport.
Results: Practice 1
Pos | Num | Driver | C/E/T | Fastest lap | Split 1st/prev | Lap |
1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | D/H/F | 1:01.6145 | 28/29 | |
2 | 26 | Colton Herta | D/H/F | 1:01.6475 | 0.0330/0.0330 | 25/25 |
3 | 10 | Alex Palou | D/H/F | 1:01.6790 | 0.0645/0.0315 | 23/25 |
4 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | D/H/F | 1:01.6851 | 0.0706/0.0061 | 12/26 |
5 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | D/H/F | 1:01.6963 | 0.0818/0.0112 | 26/28 |
6 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | D/C/F | 1:01.8514 | 0.2369/0.1551 | 25/25 |
7 | 18 | David Malukas | D/H/F | 1:01.8613 | 0.2468/0.0099 | 12/24 |
8 | 12 | Will Power | D/C/F | 1:01.8915 | 0.2770/0.0302 | 27/27 |
9 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | D/H/F | 1:01.9444 | 0.3299/0.0529 | 35/35 |
10 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | D/C/F | 1:01.9882 | 0.3737/0.0438 | 22/26 |
11 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | D/C/F | 1:02.0177 | 0.4032/0.0295 | 18/23 |
12 | 77 | Callum Ilott | D/C/F | 1:02.0360 | 0.4215/0.0183 | 24/25 |
13 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | D/H/F | 1:02.0733 | 0.4588/0.0373 | 23/29 |
14 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | D/H/F | 1:02.1064 | 0.4919/0.0331 | 16/30 |
15 | 6 | Felix Rosenqvist | D/C/F | 1:02.1094 | 0.4949/0.0030 | 18/26 |
16 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | D/H/F | 1:02.2507 | 0.6362/0.1413 | 20/26 |
17 | 30 | Jack Harvey | D/H/F | 1:02.3236 | 0.7091/0.0729 | 24/26 |
18 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | D/H/F | 1:02.3290 | 0.7145/0.0054 | 24/25 |
19 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | D/C/F | 1:02.3629 | 0.7484/0.0339 | 34/34 |
20 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | D/C/F | 1:02.4032 | 0.7887/0.0403 | 29/29 |
21 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | D/C/F | 1:02.4616 | 0.8471/0.0584 | 19/22 |
22 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | D/C/F | 1:02.5150 | 0.9005/0.0534 | 16/17 |
23 | 20 | Conor Daly | D/C/F | 1:02.5480 | 0.9335/0.0330 | 27/29 |
24 | 51 | Sting Ray Robb | D/H/F | 1:02.8157 | 1.2012/0.2677 | 35/37 |
25 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | D/H/F | 1:03.0412 | 1.4267/0.2255 | 11/13 |
26 | 15 | Graham Rahal | D/H/F | 1:03.1389 | 1.5244/0.0977 | 17/18 |
27 | 55 | Benjamin Pedersen | D/C/F | 1:03.5134 | 1.8989/0.3745 | 21/26 |