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| James Hinchcliffe with teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud |
Andretti Autosport's James Hinchcliffe set the fastest lap at 1:02.9326 seconds as the team made the switch from Chevrolet to Honda during the offseason. The Canadian was ahead of Dale Coyne Racing's Justin Wilson and AJ Foyt Racing's Takuma Sato. Hinch was 0.0059 seconds ahead of Wilson with 0.1277 separating him and Sato.
Will Power was the top Chevrolet, 0.2606 seconds back in fourth place as he led a three car string of Chevrolets. Sébastien Bourdais was fifth fastest with his new team KVSH Racing, just 0.0016 seconds back of Power. The 2009 St. Petersburg winner Ryan Briscoe was sixth fastest.
Ryan Hunter-Reay was seventh, 0.3358 seconds back of his teammate. Simon Pagenaud was eighth ahead of Graham Rahal. Tony Kanaan rounded out the top ten in his first session driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. He was 0.3932 seconds back of Hinchcliffe.
Helio Castroneves was eleventh fastest, 0.4672 seconds back. Josef Newgarden was twelfth fastest, 0.5501 seconds back. Defending IndyCar champion Scott Dixon was 0.7099 seconds back of Hinchcliffe in thirteenth ahead, 0.0334 seconds ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya as he makes his first appearance in an IndyCar race since Fontana in 2000. Carlos Muñoz followed his fellow Colombian on the time sheet in fifteenth, 0.7622 seconds back of his Andretti Autosport teammate.
Mike Conway was sixteenth in his first session with Ed Carpenter Racing. Marco Andretti was 0.8481 seconds back of his teammate Hinchcliffe in seventeenth. Charlie Kimball was eighteenth, 0.9697 seconds back, the final driver within a second of the fastest time.
The bottom four features three rookies. Jack Hawksworth was 1.1215 seconds back in nineteenth. He won the Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg last year. Mikhail Aleshin was twentieth in his first session driving for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Two Colombians took the final two spots on the time sheet. Sebastián Saavedra was twenty-first, 1.7455 seconds back in his first session driving for KV AFS Racing. Carlos Huertas was 4.8380 seconds back in twenty-second driving for Dale Coyne Racing. He completed six laps in the entire session.
IndyCar second practice will take place at 2:00 p.m. ET.
