2009 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg winner Ryan Briscoe topped the morning practice session at St. Petersburg this morning. Briscoe, driving the No. 8 NTT Data car for Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 2.4236 seconds on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course.
After running a partial schedule last season for Panther Racing, Briscoe is back behind the wheel full-time this year with Chip Ganassi Racing.
“It’s tough conditions out there because of the wind. We make some set-up changes during the session and nothing really made an improvement,” Briscoe said. “It definitely feels like there should be room for improvement, but with the wind in a different direction from yesterday it’s tough.”
Three-time St. Petersburg winner Helio Castroneves was second, .0494 of a second off of Briscoe’s quick time.
Takuma Sato, who led yesterday’s practice, was third quickest followed by Sebastian Bourdais and Will Power. Simon Pagenaud was sixth quickest, followed by James Hinchcliffe, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and rookie Jack Hawksworth.
Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying is scheduled for 2 p.m. EST, but may be pushed back due to weather in the area.
