ST. PETERSBURG, Fla– After moving to Andretti Autosport for the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season, Romain Grosjean set the fastest time in the opening practice session for Sunday’s (February 27th) Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Grosjean navigated the 14 turn, 1.8 mile street circuit in 1 minute, 1.0525 seconds in the No. 28 Honda. Second fastest was teammate Colton Herta in the No. 26 Honda, just .1042 seconds slower than the Frenchman.
“The car was performing well as we could see,” Grosjean said. “Obviously quite a bit of traffic out there, but nice to put in a lap, and we did a couple of test items to get a read. I think we’ve got a very, very strong baseline, but I think there’s a little bit more to come if we put it all together. Hopefully we can find that and have fun for the rest of the weekend.”
The session had one red flag. Jimmie Johnson had a severe lockup at turn 10 and the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion stalled while trying to spin his car around to get going, even with the left front brake showing some flame.
All 26 drivers turned a combined 471 laps. Defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou was 17th fastest with a lap of 1 minute, 1.7267 seconds, or .6742 seconds behind Grosjean.
The fastest rookie was David Malukas in 10th place for Dale Coyne Racing with a lap of 1 minute, 1.5889 seconds. Kyle Kirkwood was 12th ahead of fellow rookie Devlin DeFrancesco.
Results:
- Romain Grosjean
- Colton Herta
- Will Power
- Simon Pagenaud
- Graham Rahal
- Alexander Rossi
- Jack Harvey
- Scott McLaughlin
- Rinus VeeKay
- David Malukas
- Helio Castroneves
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Devlin DeFrancesco
- Josef Newgarden
- Marcus Ericsson
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Alex Palou
- Takuma Sato
- Scott Dixon
- Pato O’Ward
- Conor Daly
- Callum Ilott
- Dalton Kellett
- Jimmie Johnson
- Christian Lundgaard
- Tatiana Calderon
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.