Lundgaard leads Armstrong in second St. Petersburg IndyCar practice

IndyCar’s new three-stage practice session saw Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard lead the 64 minutes of combined running Saturday morning at St. Petersburg.

The Dane’s No. 7 Chevy (1m01.6157s) led a cluster of seven drivers who were within 0.1s, as Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong came closest to matching Lundgaard in the No. 66 Honda. After Armstrong, it was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No. 10 Honda, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Honda, ECR’s Alexander Rossi in the No. 20 Chevy, and David Malukas in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevy who completed the top six.

Among the rookies, Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger was impressive yet again, posting the 13th-fastest lap.

Adversity found three drivers, starting with Andretti’s Will Power who hammered the right side of his car early in the session. ECR’s Christian Rasmussen was next to find the walls and AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet closed the trio of impacts by smacking his right-rear wheels against the wall. All three should have no problems making the late-day qualifying session.

Tire conservation for qualifying and the race was the main strategy deployed during the 40-minute opening segment, in which only 11 cars had registered competitive laps after nearly 25 minutes had gone by.

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 4:35-6pm ET

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