Rosenqvist paces opening practice at St. Petersburg
Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist led a Honda dominated first practice to kick off the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Rosenqvist, who won at St. Pete in 2016 when he was racing Indy Lights, was the only driver to dip into the 62 second range with a lap of 1:01.8215 seconds. Former series champ Ryan Hunter-Reay was second, .2421s behind the rookie.
Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist led a Honda dominated first practice to kick off the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Rosenqvist, who won at St. Pete in 2016 when he was racing Indy Lights, was the only driver to dip into the 62 second range with a lap of 1:01.8215 seconds. Former series champ Ryan Hunter-Reay was second, .2421s behind the rookie.
Marcus Ericsson also showed some muscle in the opening session by logging the third quickest lap of 1:02.0811, making it two Swedes in the top five. Completing the top five were the championship pair from a year ago – Scott Dixon in fourth and Alexander Rossi in fifth followed by Takuma Sato was sixth.
Josef Newgarden carried the flag for Chevrolet and Team Penske in seventh while Graham Rahal recovered to finish seventh after hitting the wall and damaging the tow-link on his No. 15 United Rentals Honda. His Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team repaired the car and he completed the session.
Rounding out the top ten were sophomore Zach Veach, who won the Indy Lights round here in 2014, and two-time race winner Will Power. The session was clean and was only red-flagged once when rookie Ben Hanley came to a stop coming off Turn 4 with around 20 seconds remaining in the session.
