Grosjean Leads Friday Practice In St. Petersburg
Grid Talk Reporter 21:41 25/02/2022
Romain Grosjean started his first weekend with the Andretti Autosport team in perfect fashion by topping IndyCar practice ahead of team-mate Colton Herta at St Petersburg.
Many of the drivers only had one test day before the start of the season, so turning their first laps in practice today would be crucial for preparing for qualifying and the race. It does come with the added proviso of not reading too much into the times in the first session because of this. Grosjean had said that he had felt really at home and happy with his car in his one Sebring test day, but that he didn’t want to read too much into that performance in a bid to avoid tempting fate. However, Herta usurped long-time pacesetter Hélio Castroneves and then immediately afterwards Grosjean dropped into P1 with 22 minutes in the session to go, his lap three tenths of a second faster than Herta.
Will Power briefly separated the highly-rated team-mates but Herta then improved again to claim second at a circuit he dominated on with pole and victory in 2021, 0.104 seconds adrift. Penske driver Power rounded out the top three ahead of ex-team-mate and new Meyer Shank Racing driver Simon Pagenaud making an impressive debut in his new surroundings. Graham Rahal gave Rahal Letterman Lanigan a top five to start a season in which it has expanded to three full-time entries, with Jack Harvey two places behind in seventh having moved over from Meyer Shank where Pagenaud has replaced him.
Sandwiched by the Rahal cars was Alexander Rossi in sixth, in a crucial year for the driver out of contract at Andretti and without a win since 2019. Behind seventh-placed Harvey was Scott McLaughlin, the second year driver starting a third race at St Pete for Penske having made his IndyCar debut in the 2020 finale here, and he headed a top 10 finisher at the race last year: Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay in ninth. David Malukas was way down the order for the majority of the session, but the Dale Coyne with HMD Racing rookie driver leapt up to 10th, just five tenths off the pacesetter.
A number of high profile drivers were way down the order in practice, although it might not be representative given the lack of pre-season testing. Among them was Josef Newgarden in 14th, while the reigning champion Álex Palou was 17th and his Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon in 20th. Pato O’Ward was 21st for Arrow McLaren SP while team-mate Felix Rosenqvist was 16th. The drivers will get one more practice, first thing on Saturday morning, before qualifying just after noon on the same day.
