Ryan Hunter-Reay continues to show muscle in final practice

Ryan Hunter-Reay was the fastest cat in the alley again during the final NTT Data IndyCar Series practice session before this afternoon’s qualifying session on the Streets of St. Petersburg.

The driver of the No. 28 DHL Honda for Andretti Autosport laid down a benchmark lap of 1 minute .8966 seconds early in the session.

Team Penske showed their full hand for the first time this weekend with Josef Newgarden clocking the second-fastest lap at 1:00.9005s, just a scant .0039s off Hunter-Reay’s time. Simon Pagenaud logged the fourth quickest time (1:01.0500) and two-time St. Pete winner Will Power ended up fifth.

Sandwiched between Newgarden and Pagenaud was Takuma Sato in third, representing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Ed Jones cracked the top ten for the first time all weekend in his first outing for Ed Carpenter Racing with Scuderia Corsa with a time of 1:01.0987s. He did, however, bring out a red flag with less than two minutes remaining which ended the session abruptly.

Chip Ganassi Racing occupied the next two spots led by reigning series champion Scott Dixon with rookie Felix Rosenqvist in eighth.

Rounding out the top ten were Colton Herta and Marco Andretti.

The session was halted two additional times – first for Zach Veach going off in Turn 13 and second for rookie Ben Hanley going off course in Turn 4.  Both were handed a five-minute penalty for causing a red flag.