By David Morgan, Associate Editor
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Marcus Ericsson continued the Andretti Global domination of the weekend in St. Petersburg, posting the fastest lap in practice on Saturday morning in the last on-track time before qualifying this afternoon for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Ericsson’s lap of one minute, 0.5151 was enough to put him up the top of the board and he would not be eclipsed. The No. 28 team was so confident their lap would stand that they called it an early day with a number of minutes still left in the session.
“We rolled off strong yesterday and then we did some good work overnight I felt trying to fine tune the car a bit to predict for this afternoon,” said Ericsson. “I was really happy with the car and that’s why we called it early. The car is in the zone. We just need to very, very fine tune for this afternoon. We’re definitely in the zone.”
Behind Ericsson, Rinus VeeKay gave Dale Coyne Racing a reason to smile with the second-fastest lap of the morning. Saturday’s lap was a drastic departure from Friday’s opening session where the No. 18 Honda only clocked in 25th fastest.
“We opted not to use [the Firestone alternates] yesterday and we used them today, since it’s going to be more representative, closer to qualifying,” VeeKay said. “Yesterday we rolled off the truck not feeling great. The car was pretty far out of the window. Made some really big changes overnight and this car feels like a race car now.
“Great job by the Dale Coyne crew. Great teamwork. We did pretty well putting those green tires on. For me, putting them on early was important because I prioritize getting a clear run, getting a clear feel of the whole car.
“Really happy. Good second practice session with Dale Coyne Racing for me.”
Defending series champion Alex Palou finished the session in third, followed by Nolan Siegel in fourth, and Conor Daly giving Juncos Hollinger Racing a good run to round out the top-five.
“It’s an interesting weekend so far,” Daly said. “You kind of see the field jumbled up a little bit. It’s actually really nice to have these rules where we can run the extra set of [alternates], especially for someone like me, who didn’t really get to run much on the road and street courses.
“It’s tough, man. One lap. Yesterday it was a couple of laps, but I think we realized there is more there if you try and get the peak out of it in just one lap. But that means you have to be perfect, so you can’t make any mistakes. You have to get everything out of it. It’s a tough one, man.”
Daly’s teammate Sting Ray Robb kept up the strong showing from JHR by clocking in seventh-fastest, noting the speed advantage of the green Firestone alternates really showed on the time sheet.
“It’s pretty incredible, the jump from the blacks to the greens is unbelievable,” said Robb. “Like, it’s the biggest gap we’ve ever had in INDYCAR from primary to alternate sets. You know, after three laps it feels like a stick of butter when you smear it on a piece of bread. It just disintegrates the tire.
“It’ll be interesting to see what it’ll be like in qualifying. Everybody is going to be very tight like they are now, but it’s really hard to get the maximum out of that one lap tire. So, we’ll see what it’s like.
“Hopefully, we keep moving forward. I know not everyone ran the green in that session, but yeah, I’, feeling good. You’ve got to compromise one way or another. You have to pick a tire to be good on, so hopefully we picked the right one.”
The remainder of the top-10 in practice went to Christian Lundgaard in sixth, Pato O’Ward in eighth, Kyle Kirkwood in ninth, and David Malukas in 10th.
Power Outage
In the opening minutes of the session, Will Power stopped in Turn 1 with no power to his No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet causing the first red flag.
The issue was an apparent problem with the hybrid unit, which is rolling out full-time this season after its debut midway through the 2024 season.
“It sounded like a boost penalty and it just shut off,” Power radioed to his crew after rolling to a stop.
He would return to the track later in practice, but only managed the 24th fastest time of the session.
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