IndyCar | FP1 | St. Pete | Kirkwood and Palou dominate opening practice - Motorsport

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The 2025 IndyCar season is underway with FP1 at St. Pete in Florida, full report and results below.

45-minute practice

Following a very quiet start to the session, Alexander Rossi smashed in a 1:02.3702 to lead Conor Daly and Nolan Siegel after 15 minutes. On his next lap he pumped in a 1:01.6603 to go even faster. Will Power and Christian Rasmussen joined the former Indy 500 winner in the 61s bracket before the 20-minute mark.

Rossi’s Danish teammate then went top as a 1:01.5480 saw ECR run 1-2. Penske’s Power soon ended that as a 1:01.2925 put him over 0.2s clear of the pack. Rosenqvist and Rahal completed the top 5 halfway through the first segment of IndyCar FP1.

Out of turn 3, Felix Rosenqvist had a huge spin as he exited the corner. Incredibly, he managed to avoid hitting the wall and could return to the pits, although his tyres were finished thanks to flat spotting.

Back at the front, two-time defending champion Alex Palou put in a 1:01.211 to go fastest, with the three Penske cars of Newgarden, Power and McLaughlin right behind him. Less than a tenth covered the top 4. Rasmussen, Dixon, Rossi, O’Ward, Kirkwood and Rosenqvist completed the top 10 with 15 minutes left.

Andrerri’s Kirkwood moved himself up to P5 in the closing stages, although he was over 0.2s behind McLaughlin in 4th. Nolan Siegel did a good job as well, pushing himself into the top 10, two places and two hundredths behind teammate Pato O’Ward.

2024 championship runner-up Colton Herta did not come out until very late, finishing P14 as he put in a few laps at the end when the track was its best.

45-minute full field results

Palou
Newgarden
Power
McLaughlin
Kirkwood
Rasmussen
Dixon
O’Ward
Rossi
Siegel
Lundgaard
Ericsson
Rosenqvist
Herta
Armstrong
Rahal
Malukas
Daly
VeeKay
Ilott
Robb
Ferrucci
Simpson
Shwartzman
Foster
DeFrancesco
Abel

Group A — 10 minutes

Drivers involved: Rasmussen, Abel, Ilott, Siegel, Robb, Armstrong, Shwartzman, McLaughlin, Malukas, O’Ward, Palou, VeeKay, Kirkwood, Ericsson and Foster

ECR’s Christian Rasmussen continued to be fast, clocking a 1:01.678 on the softer tyre as all drivers switched to that, although it was slightly slower than his 45-minute full group time.

On the exit of turn 9, Callum Ilott hit the wall pretty hard with his PREMA as his left rear tyre took a chunk out of it. Incredibly, no significant damage was done and he continued.

The first driver to beat the 45-minute practice benchmark was Marcus Ericsson. He pumped in a 1:01.147. Unfortunately for the Swede, that was quickly beaten by O’Ward, McLaughlin, Palou and Kirkwood.

Andretti’s Kirkwood logged a 1:00.441, going 0.159s quicker than the Spaniard. They were the only drivers in the 60s bracket.

A red flag was thrown with 3:36 to go as Marcus Armstrong repeated his teammate’s spin at turn 3. For the second time, he somehow avoided the barriers. This one was by a matter of inches.

As the session resumed, followed by the chequered flag falling soon after, Scott McLaughlin bottomed out on the bump, got slightly wide at turn 3 and hit the wall. His left front tyre and suspension was broken by the incident and he came to a stop between turns 3 and 4.

Group A IndyCar FP1 St. Pete results

Kirkwood
Palou
McLaughlin
O’Ward
Ericsson
Armstrong
Rasmussen
Ilott
Malukas
Robb
Shwartzman
Foster
VeeKay
Siegel
Abel

Group B — 10 minutes

Drivers involved: Herta, Dixon, Lundgaard, Ferrucci, Foster, Rosenqvist, Simpson, Rahal, Daly, DeFrancesco, Shwartzman, Abel, Rossi, Newgarden and Power — the rookies could continue to run in this session.

As he went for a first push lap, Colton Herta had a moment at turn 1 but quickly recovered to get back on his way.

After Robert Shwartzman did a 1:02.106 to go quickest, four drivers went into the 1:01s. Louis Foster did a 1:01.612, 0.003 quicker than Conor Daly. Ferrucci, Rossi and Rahal also got into the 1:01s with 2 minutes left.

Power (turn 10) and Lundgaard (turn 9) had kisses with the wall as they pushed on in the closing seconds.

At the end, a 1:01.060 from Colton Herta was the fastest time in Group B. Dixon jumped up to P2 to displace the impressive Louis Foster. Daly, Power, Ferrucci, Rossi and Rahal all did 1:01s as well.

However, nobody could touch the time from Kyle Kirkwood in Group A.