The streets of St Petersburg, Florida, were alive with the sound of V6 turbo charged engines once again as the Verizon IndyCar Series kicked off their 2018 season under somewhat cooler conditions than normal for this time of the year on the Gulf Coast
And topping the first session was rookie Matheus Leist driving his first race for AJ Foyt Racing after his teammate Tony Kanaan had led the way for most of the session.
But in the final part of the session, as the temperatures picked up and the street circuit started to rubber in, Leist jumped into the top 10 and then set the fastest lap of 1m 01.7231s during the closing seconds of FP1.
He was followed by last year’s winner, Dale Coyne Racing's Sébastien Bourdais, just 0.0488s behind the rookie who sent Andretti Autosports’ Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi into third and fourth places after they had both waited for the track to rubber in before taking their shot at a top time.
They were followed by Ganassi's Scott Dixon in fifth, DTM refugee Robert Wickens who was sixth for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and the first Penske, driven by Simon Pagenaud in seventh place.
Will Power in the second Penske was eighth ahead of Kanaan in ninth, who spun at Turn 4 causing the only red flag of the session and they were followed by Spencer Pigot in 10th.
Surprisingly, the reigning Verizon IndyCar Champion Josef Newgarden could only finish 13th!
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