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Colton Herta put Harding Steinbrenner Racing on top in the opening two hours of IndyCar’s ‘Spring Training’ pre-season test at Austin, with his final lap of the session.
The Indy Lights runner-up’s best lap of 1m48.7443s around the 3.427-mile course edged fellow rookie Marcus Ericsson of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports by 0.0949 seconds.
The HSR team formally announced earlier on Tuesday that it would be running in a technical partnership with Andretti Autosport’s technology arm, a day after it parted with Herta’s intended team-mate Patricio O’Ward.
Third fastest was the quickest Chevrolet-powered car, the Team Penske entry of 2017 champion Josef Newgarden, who beat another rookie – RC Enerson in Carlin’s Dallara-Chevrolet – by 0.19s.
Zach Veach and Marco Andretti were top of the Andretti Autosport contingent, ahead of defending champion Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda.
Spencer Pigot, Alexander Rossi and Max Chilton completed the top 10, with Felix Rosenqvist 12th in the second Ganassi entry.