Will Power closed out practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at the top of the timesheets ahead of the first IndyCar qualifying session of the season later today.
After experiencing a mixed Friday of running at the street course that saw him crash out of FP1 before topping FP2, Power produced a late lap of 1:00.8965 to close out practice at the head of the classification.
An early red flag was issued after Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay ran out of fuel on track, but his car was quickly recovered to give the drivers plenty of running time in the 45-minute session.
It proved to be a closely-contested session as just over one second separated all 22 cars, leaving the battle for pole position finely-balanced ahead of qualifying later today.
Power's late lap saw him edge out A. J. Foyt Enterprises Jack Hawksworth by just 0.08 seconds, with the British driver leading for much of the session before pitting with a few minutes to go.
Juan Pablo Montoya underpinned the pace of Penske teammate Power by finishing third, while Helio Castroneves also ran well in the #3 car to finish fifth. The fourth Penske of Simon Pagenaud ended FP3 seventh.
Graham Rahal finished as the top Honda-powered driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in fourth place, leading Castroneves and Ed Carpenter Racing's Josef Newgarden.
Sebastien Bourdais finished eighth for KVSH Racing, while Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon rounded out the top 10.
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