Power and Dixon top St Petersburg Indycar practice

Autosport

Will Power rebounded from his morning crash to lead the way in a disrupted second IndyCar Series practice session on the St Petersburg street track.

Penske repaired Power’s Dallara-Chevrolet following his hefty impact on the exit of Turn 9 in practice one, and he grabbed the top spot in the final minute of the day’s second session.

The afternoon practice had been due to run for an hour and a quarter, but was halted for 40 minutes early on so track repairs could be carried out after the surface began to break up on a bump after Turn 3.

With a packed support programme, the restarted session was truncated, giving teams and drivers around 50 minutes of actual running in the end.

There were multiple changes of first position when practice resumed, before reigning champion Scott Dixon appeared to have settled himself at the head of the order.

But the Ganassi driver’s 1m00.9573s lap was usurped by a 1m00.9431s from Power with just seconds left on the clock.

Morning pacesetter Simon Pagenaud ended up third, followed by 2015 title contender Graham Rahal in the fastest of the Hondas.

AJ Foyt Racing repeated its strong practice one form, with Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth sandwiching post-injury returnee James Hinchcliffe and Carlos Munoz in fifth and eighth.

Hawksworth again had a couple of spells setting the pace, and was leading the session when it was red-flagged.

Penske pair Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the top 10.

After a quiet morning, former Manor Formula 1 driver Alexander Rossi got in the top three for a while. He later caused a red flag by sliding down an escape road, and slipped back to 13th.

Having been slowest in practice one, Rossi’s fellow F1 convert Max Chilton improved to 18th in the 22-car field, just 0.7697s off the pace as less than a second covered the top 20.

PRACTICE TWO RESULTS:

PosDriverTeamCarTimeGapLaps
1Will PowerTeam PenskeDallara/Chevrolet1m00.9431s25
2Scott DixonChip Ganassi RacingDallara/Chevrolet1m00.9573s0.0142s22
3Simon PagenaudTeam PenskeDallara/Chevrolet1m01.1796s0.2365s23
4Graham RahalRahal Letterman LaniganDallara/Honda1m01.2924s0.3493s25
5Takuma SatoAJ Foyt EnterprisesDallara/Honda1m01.3246s0.3815s18
6James HinchcliffeSchmidt Peterson MotorsportsDallara/Honda1m01.3334s0.3903s23
7Carlos MunozAndretti AutosportDallara/Honda1m01.3745s0.4314s26
8Jack HawksworthAJ Foyt EnterprisesDallara/Honda1m01.3808s0.4377s20
9Helio CastronevesTeam PenskeDallara/Chevrolet1m01.4280s0.4849s27
10Juan Pablo MontoyaTeam PenskeDallara/Chevrolet1m01.4296s0.4865s21
11Marco AndrettiAndretti AutosportDallara/Honda1m01.4819s0.5388s25
12Ryan Hunter-ReayAndretti AutosportDallara/Honda1m01.5034s0.5603s19
13Alexander RossiAndretti HertaDallara/Honda1m01.5198s0.5767s25
14Sebastien BourdaisKVSH RacingDallara/Chevrolet1m01.5540s0.6109s20
15Tony KanaanChip Ganassi RacingDallara/Chevrolet1m01.5599s0.6168s24
16Mikhail AleshinSchmidt Peterson MotorsportsDallara/Honda1m01.5655s0.6224s26
17Josef NewgardenEd Carpenter RacingDallara/Chevrolet1m01.5851s0.6420s18
18Max ChiltonChip Ganassi RacingDallara/Chevrolet1m01.7128s0.7697s23
19Charlie KimballChip Ganassi RacingDallara/Chevrolet1m01.7388s0.7957s25
20Conor DalyDale Coyne RacingDallara/Honda1m01.8598s0.9167s28
21Luca FilippiDale Coyne RacingDallara/Honda1m02.2879s1.3448s29
22Spencer PigotRahal Letterman LaniganDallara/Honda1m02.3670s1.4239s21

Power and Dixon top St Petersburg Indycar practice

  • Autosport
    About The Author
    -

    seven + 19 =

    You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

    Related stories