Dixon Takes Final IndyCar Practice at St. Pete, Honda Sweeps Top Six

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Honda continued their dominance of Verizon IndyCar Series practice in preparation for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg by taking the top six positions on the time sheet.

The No. 9 GE LED Lighting Honda of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon topped the charts with a lap of 1 minute, 01.6240 seconds (105.154 mph) ahead of James Hinchcliffe in the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’s No. 5 ARROW Honda. Third was the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts Honda of Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, while Max Chilton’s Chip Ganassi Racing No. 8 Gallagher Honda was fourth.

Dale Coyne Racing’s representative in the top five was Sebastien Bourdais in his No. 18 Honda ahead of Marco Andretti’s No. 27 hhgregg Honda for Andretti Autosport.

Chevrolet’s best car was Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Verizon Chevrolet with a 1:01.8229 while teammate Will Power’s No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet was the second best Chevrolet in tenth.

2016 IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud was 11th in his No. 1 PPG Automotive Finishes Chevrolet for Team Penske.

Andretti Autosport’s Takuma Sato was 17th after his crew had to rebuild the car following an accident in the second practice session.

Full results here: indycar-results-p3 St. Pete 2017