Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography
Carlin driver Ed Jones finished atop the leaderboards in both sessions of the first day of pre-season testing for the Indy Lights series, held at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Jones, who?finished third in the 2015 Indy Lights championship, set the quickest time in the morning session with a 1:15.036 around Homestead’s 3.5 kilometer infield road course. He finished the session ahead of Andretti Autosport driver?Shelby Blackstock in second.
Zach Veach was third in the morning for Belardi Auto Sport,?with rookies?Zachary Claman DeMelo fourth for Juncos Racing, and reigning Pro Mazda champion?Santiago Urrutia fifth?for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, ahead of prospective teammate?RC Enerson.
Completing the Tuesday morning order were seventh-placed?Felix Serralles?for Carlin, USF2000 graduate?Dalton Kellett in the second Andretti car in eighth, reigning European Formula 3 champion?Felix Rosenqvist in ninth for Belardi, Carlin’s newest signing?Neil Alberico in tenth, and?Kyle Kaiser?in the other Juncos car.
In the afternoon, Jones improved by a half-second to finish with the best time of the day – a 1:14.538. Jones was one of only two drivers to go under the 1:15 barrier – the other was Rosenqvist, who improved to finish the afternoon session in second place with a 1:14.706.
The Swede finished ahead of Enerson in third, Serralles in fourth, and Urrutia completing the top five yet again. Kaiser, Veach, DeMelo, Blackstock, Alberico, and Kellett completed the 11-car running order for the final session of the day.
Veach completed?the most laps of any driver over the two sessions with a total of 90 laps, while Urrutia completed the fewest, with 54 laps on the board.