After a hiatus of nearly half a year, the NTT IndyCar Series roared back to life on a sunny afternoon in St. Petersburg, Florida. Under near-perfect weather conditions, the first practice session witnessed Florida’s own Kyle Kirkwood seizing the spotlight as he dominated the timesheets in his Chili’s-sponsored #27 car.
The highlight of the day was undoubtedly Kirkwood’s blistering performance, where he clocked his fast lap towards the closing stages of the session. He tamed the 1.8-mile street course in an impressive time of 1 minute 0.4409 seconds, leaving the spectators in awe of his driving prowess.
The reigning series champion, Alex Palou, was hot on his heels, missing the top spot by a hair’s breadth of 0.15 seconds. Despite the near miss, Palou’s performance reaffirmed his status as a formidable contender this season.
Meanwhile, the young blood of the series also made an impact, with rookie Louis Foster making a remarkable debut. Handling the #45 RLL Honda, Foster clinched an impressive 12th place, emerging as the fastest rookie of the day.
In a similar vein, the newly formed team PREMA proved their mettle, demonstrating that they can compete with the established teams. Driver Callum Ilott clocked the 18th best time, while their rookie racer secured the 24th quickest time. Although not in the top half, their competitive times in the first practice session marked a positive start for the Italian outfit.
However, the day was not without its share of drama. The first practice run, now divided into three parts for all road and street courses this season, saw the first red flag of the day unfurled due to Marcus Armstrong’s mishap. Armstrong narrowly saved his #66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda from crashing into the barriers at the challenging high-speed Turn 3.
This corner, notorious for a particularly bumpy stretch of public roads, caused more trouble later in the session. Scott McLaughlin, driving his #3 Team Penske machine, drifted wide at the same turn, resulting in a collision with the concrete barriers. The impact damaged his left front steering arm, forcing a halt to his run.
Turn 3 was a hotbed for spins, with many others teetering on the brink of incidents. The increased difficulty of this stretch this year could be attributed to the new hybrid system’s added weight, introduced mid-last season.
The teams will no doubt be working overnight on suspension updates to better manage these bumps. Motor racing enthusiasts can look forward to the second practice session scheduled for 10:15 AM Eastern Time on Saturday, where the racers will once again battle it out on the challenging St. Petersburg course.
