The 2026 IndyCar season has officially begun. Drivers took to the Streets of St. Pete for the first practice session, which was led by Scott McLaughlin.
Early Runnings and Times
All cars took the track as the green flag waved, jumping into action early. In the early stages, it was Rinus Veekay, David Malukas, and Alexander Rossi trading fastest laps. After a red flag the times contiuned to drop. At the 16-minute mark of the session, it was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Álex Palou with a 1:01.6942 ahead of teammate Scott Dixon.
It would stay that way until the closing stages of the session, when last year’s pole sitter McLaughlin managed to find some speed and put a lap together, finishing 0.1148 seconds ahead of Palou’s time.
The Group Sessions
Early on in the Group 1 session, Kyffin Simpson and Christian Rasmussen battled it out for fastest lap, but with eight minutes remaining and a lap time of 1:01.1782, Simpson put an end to that battle. That time would be the best of the session with Palou and Marcus Armstrong behind him.
Group two is where the speed really came through, and times started to drop. After an early red flag, the session settled down. Kyle Kirkwood put down the time to beat with a 1:10.1777, with five minutes to go. It seemed like it would be the fastest of the day until Felix Rosenqvist and Scott McLaughlin set even faster times in the closing minutes. Rosenqvist finished 0.0640 behind McLaughlin’s time of 1:01.1020.
The top three finishers of group two were the top three fastest overall, followed by Simpson.
Red Flags and Incidents
The all-car practice was nothing short of action-packed as drivers tried to get up to speed. The three red flags were evident that it’s going to be a work in progress.
The first red flag of the session came early, caused by debris on the track when a metal cylinder fell off of rookie Dennis Hauger’s Dale Coyne car. The second red flag soon after, when Rossi took a spin in turn 4. Red flag number three in the all-car session was caused by Josef Newgarden, who went off turn 13, narrowly missing the barrier.
The red flags continued to make appearances as the drivers were split into two groups. In group 1, it was veteran Dixon who found the barriers at the exit of Turn 9 hard. In group two, it was Louis Foster who caused the red. Similar to Newgarden, the Brit went off in turn 13, and his RLL Honda found the tire barriers.
Drivers will be back on track tomorrow in St. Pete at 9:35 AM Eastern Standard Time for Practice 2, followed by knockout qualifying at 4:35 PM.