Hunter-Reay, Honda Set Opening-Day Pace In St. Petersburg

March 8, 2019 by Honda

Ryan Hunter-Reay leads a 24-car field as 2019 season begins

• Five Honda drivers post top-seven times in practice

As he did in 2018, Honda-powered Ryan Hunter-Reay again led the way in opening day practice to officially start the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season in advance of Sunday's Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. 

Even by NTT IndyCar Series standards, the 24-car field was incredibly close after a pair of Friday practice sessions, with less than three-tenths of a second separating the top 10, and less than eight-tenths of a second between first and 20th positions on the opening-day timesheet.

Marco Andretti ended the day an encouraging third quickest, while Colton Herta led the five rookies in the field and ran fourth on the day.  Alexander Rossi finished sixth overall, with previous St. Petersburg race winner James Hinchcliffe seventh, as Honda drivers claimed five of the top seven positions.

Activities on the temporary street circuit continue tomorrow with final practice and qualifying.  Sunday's 110-lap season-opening race starts at 1:30 p.m. EDT, with live network television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport Honda) quickest in opening-day practice: 'We definitely made some changes between the sessions. At first, I thought the car was a bit of a handful, and it still is, we are right on the edge of tipping it over. But it was a good outing. The car is a handful at the moment; I'd like it to be a little bit more 'polite' in a few areas. We will put our heads together as a team and work to get this #28 DHL Honda up front, but it is a good first step.'

NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Circuit: Bayfront Park (1.8-mile temporary street circuit) St. Petersburg, FL

2018 Winner: Sebastien Bourdais (DCR with Vasser-Sullivan Honda) 86.207 mph average

Weather: Sunny, warm, 78 degrees F

Top-10 Friday Practice Session Results:

Ps.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Notes
1.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:00.8969	106.409 mph avg.
2.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	1:00.9812
3.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:01.0351
4.	Colton Herta-R	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	Honda	1:01.0776
5.	Max Chilton	Carlin Racing	Chevrolet	1:01.1171
6.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:01.1388
7.	James Hinchcliffe	Arrow Schmidt Peterson	Honda	1:01.1453
8.	Charlie Kimball	Carlin Racing	Chevrolet	1:01.1681
9.	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:01.1811
10.	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:01.1896

Other Honda Results

11.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	1:01.2129
12.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	1:01.2700
13.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	1:01.4284
14.	Felix Rosenqvist-R	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	1:01.5020
18.	Sebastien Bourdais	DCR with Vasser-Sullivan	Honda	1:01.5635
19.	Marcus Ericsson-R	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	1:01.6238
20.	Jack Harvey	Michael Shank Racing	Honda	1:01.6610
21.	Santino Ferrucci-R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	1:01.6736
23.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:02.0331