Saavedra leads open Indy Lights practice at Barber

Sebastian Saavedra led the only session of Firestone Indy Lights practice for the Grand Prix of Alabama.

Saavedra turned a lap of 1:17.7126 in the No. 27 Team AFS car for AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport. The Sam Schmidt Motorsports duo of Victor Carbone and Oliver Webb were second and third, respectively.

Sunoco Pole Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Alabama is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. on March 31.

POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 27 Team AFS): "From where we were [when we tested here], it's a very different condition because of all the tire compounds with the Rolex and the GT cars. But at the end, we're still very competitive. We've shown that we have a strong pace, mostly for a long run. It's very important, the qualifying session around here, because if you do bad in qualifying it's very hard to pass. So we're very focused on having a fast car for qualifying session, and a very consistent car for a race because the tires go very easily around here." (About returning to Firestone Indy Lights): "It for sure helps to test here before the race. Last two weeks we've been testing different things with the team, and now I have a new teammate that we're able to work together, and now I think after St. Pete we got to know each other a lot more, and now I get to work a lot better with my engineers now that they know me. They know my work ethics, and I know their work ethic, so for sure it helps. We're coming back after a great test, we did very good in that test. I love this place, and we're very pumped after a good weekend in St. Pete, and I want to keep it up for the start of the season."

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