Alexander Rossi, penalized for a qualifying infraction on Saturday, made up for it in Sunday morning’s warmup and final practice for IndyCar’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The Andretti Autosport driver covered the 1.88 temporary street course layout with a best lap of 1:01.6182. Overall, Rossi ran 22 laps during the session. He’ll start 12th on the grid for today’s race.
A.J. Foyt Racing’s Tony Kanaan was second quickest (1:01.6650), followed by Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay (1:01.7338), Harding Racing’s Gabby Chaves (1:02.0030) and Penske driver and defending series champion Josef Newgarden (1:02.0438) rounded out the top five drivers.
Sixth through 10th were Scott Dixon (1:02.0806), defending race winner Sebastien Bourdais (1:02.1511), James Hinchcliffe (1:02.3681), Will Power (1:02.3817) and Spencer Pigot (1:02.5262).
11th through 15th were Simon Pagenaud (1:02.5534), Zack Veach (1:02.6113), Jordan King (1:02.6279), Matheus Leist (1:02.6286) and Marco Andretti (1:02.6366).
16th through 20th quickest were Ed Jones (1:02.6633), Max Chilton (1:02.6730), Takuma Sato (1:02.7527), Graham Rahal (1:02.9290) and pole-sitter Robert Wickens (1:02.9568.
Lastly, 21st through 24th were Jack Harvey (1:03.2674), Charlie Kimball (1:03.5847), Zachary Claman De Melo (1:03.9533) and Rene Binder (1:04.4071), who continues to search for speed.
Four drivers ran the most laps – 24 each: Chaves, Dixon, King and Harvey. The drivers running the fewest laps were Leist and De Melo, both totaling just 17 laps each.
There was only one incident during the session. A banner got loose with about 6:30 remaining, briefly bringing out a red flag practice stoppage, but the banner was removed and cars quickly returned to action.
There is a threat of rain around 11 a.m. ET, but forecasters predict it will only last about an hour. It could impact pre-race introductions, but the green flag is expected to go off as scheduled around 12:40 p.m. ET.