Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay topped the timing sheets for the 2018 St Petersburg Grand Prix’s second practice session after spending most of the session swapping times with Team Penske’s Will Power.
But with just 15 minutes of the session left, Hunter-Reay stamped his authority on the field with a time of 1m 00.8295s around the temporary street circuit that takes in both the streets of downtown St Petersburg and the main runway of the nearby Albert Whitted Airport.
And the Australian was out of luck if he wanted the runner-up sport as Schmidt Peterson’s James Hinchcliffe shaded the Penske driver by 0.163s to take second place from him.
Weather and temperature conditions were much more representative in the afternoon session and most of the field went for qualifying simulations early on. This meant that as the final minutes ticked down, there was little movement in the top ten, save for Hinchcliffe’s cheeky lap trying to go for gold and Ganassi’s Scott Dixon doing likewise and taking fourth in the dying seconds.
What was clear, however, during both of Friday’s practice sessions was that the new 2018 universal aero kit has definitely increased braking zones by removing downforce. This led to some new and interesting lines through the first sector of the track and for a lot of sideways driving, reminiscent of years gone by when cars did not have the sophisticated aerodynamics of today.
Team Penske’s reigning Verizon IndyCar Champion Josef Newgarden had a much better time, improving from fifteenth in the first session to take fifth place ahead of 2016 Indy 500 winner, Andretti’s Alexander Rossi.
Former tin top and DTM star Robert Wickens continued to impress both his SPM team and the paddock by taking a solid seventh spot, on his IndyCar debut.
Dale Coyne’s Sébastien Bourdais beat off AJ Foyt’s Tony Kanaan to take eighth with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing new recruit, and 2017 Indy 500 winner, Takuma Sato in tenth just ahead of Marco Andretti and FP1’s strong man Matheus Leist in 12th.
There were two red flags in the second session with Jordan King clipping the wall at Turn 4 and then rookie Rene Binder, on his debut weekend for Juncos Racing, hitting the wall on the exit of the same turn after a high-speed spin. And despite causing a red flag, the rookie’s car somehow did not sustain any real damage!
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