Brandon Badraoui/Lumen
Ericsson leads the way in second St. Petersburg practice
The second practice session of the new IndyCar season featured a continuation from Friday’s running as Andretti Global captured the top spot, but with a different driver in Marcus Ericsson. Following teammate Kyle Kirkwood’s P1 effort yesterday on the St. Petersburg temporary circuit, Ericsson went to the lead with a lap of 1m00.515s in the No. 28 Honda and had a surprise pursuer in Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, who was second with a 1m00.608s tour in the No. 18 Honda.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou completed the Honda 1-2-3 in the No. 10 car with a 1m00.6406s lap, just 0.0001s faster than Chevy’s best -- also a surprise -- with Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel in the No. 6 car at 1m00.6407s.
The final preparations ahead of afternoon qualifying has a few bouts of adversity as Team Penske’s Will Power had a suspected issue with his motor generator unit; his No. 12 Chevy streaked by on the front straight and made a lot of unusual sounds before falling silent. A red flag was needed to clear his stricken car.
Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman spent most of the session sitting idle on pit lane as his team rectified a radio communication problem, and some other drivers spent more time on pit lane while their crews attended to other issues.
UP NEXT: Qualifying, 2:30pm ET
Marshall Pruett
The 2026 season marks Marshall Pruett's 40th year working in the sport. In his role today for RACER, Pruett covers open-wheel and sports car racing as a writer, reporter, photographer, and filmmaker. In his previous career, he served as a mechanic, engineer, and team manager in a variety of series, including IndyCar, IMSA, and World Challenge.
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