Will Power leads teammate Juan Pablo Montoya into turn 2 at St. Petersburg. [Joe Jennings Photo]
St. Petersburg, Fla. – Will Power bounced back from adversity to lead the way in Verizon IndyCar Series practice in St. Petersburg on Friday. Teams journeyed to sunny Florida for the season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday afternoon.
In the first of two rounds of practice, Power’s season got off to a grinding start when his Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet grazed a wall, coming to a stop when something reportedly broke on the car.
His sleek car was repaired in time for round two, and he topped the speed charts in the last seconds of the run. His time was 1:00.9431 for a speed of 106.329 miles per hour.
Said Power, “A bad start but the guys thrashed away and full credit goes to them to get the car back out there and get some laps. Overall, it was a good session and we ended up P1.”
Scott Dixon ended up second with a speed of 106.304 mph.
Simon Pagenaud timed third followed by five Honda-powered cars, including Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, James Hinchcliffe, Carlos Munoz and Jack Hawksworth.
The second round was interrupted when a manhole cover came loose, and track crew had to repair the affected area.
The racing action is taking place on a 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary racing circuit that includes St. Petersburg city streets as well as part of an adjacent airport. The blue waters of Tampa Bay provide a scenic backdrop for parts of the circuit.
Two practice sessions were held today with another mid-day Saturday prior to qualifications later in the afternoon. At that time, the 22 entrants will be trying to break Power’s year old record of 1 minute, 0.6931 seconds (106.676 mph) in Firestone Fast Six.
For Sunday’s 110-lap race, ABC will telecast the event with pre-race at 12:30 p.m. ET and the green flag at 12:52 p.m. The telecast also will be streaming live on WatchESPN.
ESPN will produce telecasts of four additional Verizon IndyCar Series races this season on ABC, including the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29 and two days of Indy 500 qualifications May 21-22. ABC also will televise the race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 14 and two races from Detroit’s Belle Isle circuit June 4-5.
The Verizon IndyCar Series races on ABC will have an all-new graphics look and a new design for the scoring ticker than runs across the top of the screen during the race.
In other news, organizers for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg announced that Firestone, the Official Tire of the Verizon IndyCar Series, has entered into a multi-year extension, reaffirming the tire brand as title sponsor of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Firestone first began its naming rights agreement with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in 2014
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