The 2023 INDYCAR season begins this weekend on the streets of St Petersburg.
Teams and drivers were finally able to hit the track today for the first practice session of the season. Race weekend has arrived as 27 cars hit the streets of St Petersburg. Nearly half of those cars had some sort of on-track issue, consisting of either spins or wall taps that brought out several red flags throughout the session.
Scott Dixon was fastest in practice, laying down the quickest lap of the session in the final minutes. “The first session was a little messy,” Dixon said. “The session ran really long, an hour and 15 minutes, which was good. A couple sets of tires for most of the field. We ended up at the top, which is a nice way to start the weekend. Now the tough part is trying to stay there.”
Colton Herta, who led a 1-2-3 for Andretti Autosport late in practice, held on to finish 2nd with Dixon’s teammate Alex Palou completing the top three. It was a rough afternoon for RLL Racing, as Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal (25th, 26th) had several issues with their cars. Defending race winner Scott McLaughlin found the wall twice during practice, bending the toe link on his Chevrolet.
| 2023 Firestone GP of St Petersburg – Practice 1 Results | |||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Engine |
| 1 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 2 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | Honda |
| 3 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 4 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Autosport | Honda |
| 5 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | Honda |
| 6 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevrolet |
| 7 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda |
| 8 | Will Power | Team Penske | Chevrolet |
| 9 | Marcus Armstrong | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 10 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | Chevrolet |
| 11 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 12 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Chevrolet |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | Honda |
| 15 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 16 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | Honda |
| 17 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 18 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | Honda |
| 19 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Chevrolet |
| 20 | Santino Ferrucci | AJ Foyt Racing | Chevrolet |
| 21 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 22 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Chevrolet |
| 23 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevrolet |
| 24 | Sting Ray Robb | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda |
| 25 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 26 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 27 | Benjamin Pedersen | AJ Foyt Racing | Chevrolet |
The 20th edition of the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg opens the 2023 campaign with storylines around every turn.
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