Colton Herta looked ready to complete a two-day sweep atop the time charts at IndyCar’s two-day Spring Training at Circuit of The Americas – until Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi took the top spot on his penultimate lap with just a few minutes remaining in Wednesday’s final session.

Rossi’s best lap of 1m46.8535s in the afternoon session edged the Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie by 0.1466 seconds – but left Herta with the fastest time of the two days at 1m46.6258s set on Tuesday afternoon.

Results

Third fastest was Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay at 1m47.1757s, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist, who led for most of the afternoon session, with at 1m47.2941s.

Graham Rahal rounded out the top five as Hondas swept the top six spots, with Scott Dixon sixth quickest. Simon Pagenaud was the fastest Chevy in seventh, followed by the Hondas of Arrow Schmidt Peterson’s James Hinchcliffe and Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci and Penske’s Josef Newgarden tenth.

The Week In IndyCar, Feb 13, with Hargitt, Dixon, Servia and Daly

Herta continues to lead at COTA Spring Training

Robin Miller's Mailbag for February 13, presented by Honda Racing / HPD

Marcus Ericsson brought out a red flag earlier in the session for light contact with the barrier at Turn 2. Will Power went of at Turn 19 with 45 minutes to go in the session, bringing out another red flag. Jack Harvey’s spin at Turn 6 with 10 minutes to go brought another brief halt to action.

Tony Kanaan’s No.14 Chevy spent a large chunk of the day in the garage, as it did yesterday when gearbox problems limited him to 16 laps. AJ Foyt Racing made several setup changes Wednesday before Kanaan went out for 20 laps. His best time of 1m48.5553s was 23rd fastest of the 25 participants.

“We’re making big changes and it takes time,” Kanaan said.

For now, the series bids farewell until the inaugural IndyCar race at COTA on March 22-24.