IndyCar

Everything that happened in messy first IndyCar practice

by Jack Benyon
4 min read

Scott Dixon went fastest in Friday practice in St Petersburg as the 2023 IndyCar season kicked off with a messy session featuring high winds, braking issues and track resurfacing causing chaos for the drivers.

St Petersburg’s 20th IndyCar race weekend, and the one with its biggest ever entry at 27, began in scrappy fashion, with plenty of high-profile drivers spinning or hitting the wall.

Some resurfacing in the first sector – especially at Turn 3 which used to be almost flat but is tricky now – and a relatively green track combined to make Turn 4 especially a treacherous braking zone.

Simon Pagenaud, Graham Rahal, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Helio Castroneves all had spins, lock-ups or contact with the wall.

One person having an uneventful session was Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood who was top for almost the whole 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the final seven minutes of the session when Dixon topped the late improvers at – incredibly – a track he has never won at.

Andretti’s Colton Herta with the last lap of the session jumped to second for Andretti, depriving Chip Ganassi Racing of a 1-2, usurping Alex Palou.

Kirkwood praised a perfect start to the season in fourth, ahead of Pagenaud who had spun early on at Turn 4 but ended the session strong for Meyer Shank Racing.

Ed Carpenter’s Rinus VeeKay was another late improver in sixth ahead of Dale Coyne’s David Malukas, who wasn’t one of the drivers setting a late time and had been second before those flurry of improvements came in the last seven minutes.

Reigning champion Will Power was eighth as the top Penske driver, ahead of the best rookie, Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong.

Last year’s winner McLaughlin hit the wall at Turn 10 and grazed the wall at Turn 3 with two wicked saves keeping his car relatively unscathed and in the session to round out the top 10.

While Armstrong was the top rookie, Juncos Hollinger’s Agustin Canapino also impressed as the ex-touring car driver was 0.7s off the best time but only 0.3s off ace team-mate Callum Ilott in his first competitive session.

The fact Canapino was 19th showed how close the session was, the top 23 drivers separated by less than a second.

Pato O’Ward was the best of the Arrow McLaren drivers in 11th with a late improvement, after Felix Rosenqvist had tumbled from a long-time spot in the top five after the late improvements.

This was the first official session IndyCar has used its new fuel produced by Shell that it says is made with 100% renewable materials.

Practice 1 Results

Pos Name Team Car Gap Next Gap Leader Best Time
1 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 1m01.614s
2 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda +0.033s +0.033s 1m01.647s
3 Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.032s +0.065s 1m01.679s
4 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda +0.006s +0.071s 1m01.685s
5 Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.011s +0.082s 1m01.696s
6 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.155s +0.237s 1m01.851s
7 David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing/HMD Motorsports Dallara DW12-Honda +0.01s +0.247s 1m01.861s
8 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.03s +0.277s 1m01.891s
9 Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.053s +0.33s 1m01.944s
10 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.044s +0.374s 1m01.988s
11 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.029s +0.403s 1m02.017s
12 Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.019s +0.422s 1m02.036s
13 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.037s +0.459s 1m02.073s
14 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda +0.033s +0.492s 1m02.106s
15 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.003s +0.495s 1m02.109s
16 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda +0.141s +0.636s 1m02.25s
17 Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.073s +0.709s 1m02.323s
18 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.006s +0.715s 1m02.329s
19 Agustín Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.033s +0.748s 1m02.362s
20 Santino Ferrucci AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.041s +0.789s 1m02.403s
21 Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.058s +0.847s 1m02.461s
22 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.054s +0.901s 1m02.515s
23 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.033s +0.934s 1m02.548s
24 Sting Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.267s +1.201s 1m02.815s
25 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.226s +1.427s 1m03.041s
26 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda +0.097s +1.524s 1m03.138s
27 Benjamin Pedersen AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet +0.375s +1.899s 1m03.513s
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