By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor
Will Power recovered from crashing out of the first practice session to click off the fastest lap of the day in the final seconds of a delayed practice session at the Streets of St. Petersburg.
A portion of the racing surface in turn 3 came apart just nine minutes into the session. That brought out the red flag for nearly 45 minutes while the track was repaired.
Once the action restarted, 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon led for much of the session only to be overtaken by Power just as the checkered flag flew on the session. Power’s lap was of 1:00.9431 was just a tick (.0142) quicker than Dixon, who was followed by Simon Pagenaud, who led the morning session. Honda claimed the next five spots led by Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato. IndyCar returnee James Hinchcliffe showed some pace for much of the session and found up sixth place on the timesheet as Carlos Munoz landed in seventh.
Jack Hawksworth carried over the strong run from the opening session to secure both AJ Foyt Racing cars inside the top 10 and was followed by Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Alexander Rossi also ran near the top of the timesheets for much of the session despite bringing out a red flag when he went off track late in the session. He ended the day with the 13th best time.
Max Chilton led the remainder of the rookies with the 18th quickest time followed by Conor Daly in 20th and Spencer Pigot rounded out the field with the 21st quickest time.
The field was separated by 1.42 seconds.
Image: Josh Chin/Tribute Racing
