ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Colton Herta, the 2021 winner of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, was the fastest driver in Saturday morning’s practice session on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course that is hosting the NTT IndyCar Series season-opening race.
In 2021, Herta dominated the race by leading 97 laps in the 100-lap race. He’ll look to duplicate that performance in Sunday’s race, which begins at 12 p.m. (ET) on NBC. Herta’s fastest lap was 1:00.0779 at a speed of 107.860 miles per hour around the course in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Autosport.
“I had a little bit of understeer,” Herta said. “The car is good. On the first run, I drove like a little bit of a fuddy duddy feeling the car out. It’s a good place to be in. I’m happy with the way the Andretti Autosport cars are handling.”
Defending winner Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske was second at 1:0025 (107.550 mph) in the No. 3 Chevrolet.
Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing was third at 1:01.7059 (107.178 mph) in the No. 21 Chevrolet.
Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Autosport was fourth at 1:00.5294 (107.055 mph) in the No. 27 Honda and 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou rounded out the top five at 1:00.6960 (106.762 mph) in the No. 10 American Legion Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Scott Dixon, who has never won the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, crashed the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda into the tire barrier in Turn 4 with 6 minutes, 36 seconds left in the session. The incident brought out the red flag and stopped the session.
More importantly, the damage on Dixon’s Honda created a repair job for the Chip Ganassi Racing crew before qualifications later today.
That qualification session is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. (ET).
The session resumed with 2 minutes, 20 seconds left, creating a bit of a traffic jam on the temporary street course that prevented anyone from seriously knocking Herta off the top position.