The first red flag of the session was caused by Benjamin Pedersen locking up into Turn 4, the car trying to swivel left, and making hard contact with its left front wing against the wall.
The second red flag was caused by a concrete patch of the track on the exit of fifth-gear Turn 3 coming up that needed clearing. By then the remaining three rookies – Marcus Armstrong, Sting Ray Robb and Agustin Canapino – had laid down their first five laps, since newcomers are granted an extra set of tyres.
Following the red flag, most of the top drivers immediately hit the track, and 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood hit top spot with a 1m02.610s for Andretti Autosport.
There was then briefly a Swedish 1-2, with Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren ahead of Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson until his team-mate 2021 champion Alex Palou lowered the benchmark to 1m02.212s.
Kirkwood was a long way from being done, though, and delivered a 1m01.802s on his seventh lap, with team-mate Romain Grosjean going second, albeit 0.3s behind.
The third red flag emerged with 43 minutes remaining, caused by Simon Pagenaud spinning his Meyer Shank Racing into the Turn 4 escape road and then stalling.
Team Penske’s defending champion Will Power had an alarming tail-out moment exiting the penultimate corner after damaging a right-rear toelink against a wall. That was easily fixed, and he wasted little time in moving into the top four once back on track.
Colton Herta made it in an Andretti 1-2-3 with his first representative flier, albeit 0.277s off Kirkwood, who had gotten his best mark down to 1m01.685s.
With 16 minutes to go, Christian Lundgaard smacked the Turn 3 wall hard enough in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan to end his session early although he limped back to the pits without assistance. Team-mate Graham Rahal, however, who had already gone into Turn 4 run-off and tried to change the balance of the car on pitlane, revisited the same run-off after locking up and then stalling.
Benjamin Pedersen, AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet
Photo by: IndyCar Series
Josef Newgarden had a four-wheel drift into the wall that necessitated repairs, while team-mate McLaughlin had another moment at Turn 3, but not before Palou delivered a new top time, a 1m01.679s on his 23rd lap.
With under three minutes to go, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay went third fastest, 0.172s off the top, with six-time champion Scott Dixon moving into fourth, and his Ganassi team-mate Marcus less than one-tenth behind.
Dixon then went fastest with 1m01.615s, a mere 0.065s up on Palou, with Herta managing to split them on his final flier.
Pagenaud jumped into the top five in the closing couple of minutes too, meaning they were split by less than a tenth of a second.
VeeKay’s time was good enough to retain sixth as fastest Chevrolet driver, with Malukas separating him from Power, defending IndyCar Series champion in eighth.
Armstrong was far and away the best rookie, finishing his first official session in ninth, 0.33s behind team-mate and compatriot Dixon, but just ahead of another Kiwi in McLaughlin.
IndyCar St. Petersburg – FP1 results