ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Colton Herta, the 2021 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg winner, was the fastest driver in Saturday’s morning practice session for the IndyCar Series season opener.
Herta sped his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda to a time of 1:00.1337 around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course off Tampa Bay.
Click here for the full results.
“The car has been good so far,” Herta said. “The first practice (Friday) we didn’t really execute it, got in some traffic, and didn’t get to show our pace. In this session we were able to do some runs. It’s always good to be the fastest heading into qualifying.”
Josef Newgarden, a two-time Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race winner, was second at 1:00.1337 in the No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske.
Two-time St. Pete winner and Team Penske teammate Will Power was third at 1:00.4101 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Pato O’Ward of Monterrey, Mexico was fourth at 1:00.5789 in the No. 5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren with Romain Grosjean of Juncos-Hollinger rounding out the top five at 1:00.6033 in the No. 77 Chevrolet.
IndyCar is back on track for knockout qualifying later today at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
Herta believes he has a car capable of winning the pole.
“This is such a fun and rewarding car to drive compared to the others that I have driven,” Herta said. “You can really drive over the top, aggressive to get a lot out of it. Other cars are creeping up to the limit, but this car, you can really rag it out and that is fun to drive.”