Underneath-fire Newgarden leads opening follow

Two-time IndyCar Sequence champion and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Newgarden set the tempo with a flying lap of 1m06.7045s within the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet across the 2.3-mile, 17-turn pure terrain street course.

The session occurred only a few hours after he gave an emotional press convention about his disqualification from the opening spherical at St. Petersburg.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, who led the early portion of the session, concluded the 75-minute session in second at 0.083s behind Newgarden.

Will Power continued to showcase Penske’s prowess to focus ahead to wrap up in third, 0.0869. Andretti International’s Colton Herta collected fourth by session’s finish.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard completed fifth, forward of Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean sixth.

Grosjean had a tense second with Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey late within the operating, showing to run him to the grass between Turns 3 and 4, which left Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi to fireside via the hole between them whereas approaching with considerably extra tempo.

Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) was seventh, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong eighth, Scott McLaughlin (Staff Penske) ninth and Marcus Ericsson (Andretti International) wrapped up the ultimate spot of the highest 10 in tenth.

There have been a number of crimson flags within the session, with Newgarden inflicting the primary after spinning wildly astray in Flip 13 at slightly below quarter-hour into the beginning of the follow session. He admitted he “wasn’t on his sport” and that he misplaced a set of tyres in consequence.

Sophomore driver Agustin Canapino additionally had an off-track second roughly 10 minutes later, skating off in Flip 1 after the backend of his No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet snapped round.

Whereas the likes of O’Ward, reigning and two-time collection champion Alex Palou, Grosjean, McLaughlin and Ericsson all occupied the highest spot, Newgarden’s vault to the highest got here within the last quarter-hour to safe the spot for good.

There’s one other 75-minute follow at 12:15pm ET tomorrow earlier than qualifying begins at 3:30pm.