Power, who took pole and won the Indy Grand Prix in both 2015 and ’17, put the #12 Team Penske-Chevrolet back at the top of times with a 69.14sec lap, but just 0.05sec slower was ECR-Chevy rookie Jordan King, who qualified fourth on his debut at St. Petersburg.

The Briton narrowly edged the other two Penske drivers and beat his own teammate, Spencer Pigot, by 0.2sec.

Fastest Honda driver was Sebastien Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan entry, 0.2sec faster than teammate Pietro Fittipaldi, who will take over the #19 DCR entry from Zachary Claman De Melo for the Phoenix race on April 7.

In between the two DCR cars was Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing entry, while Alexander Rossi headed up the Andretti Autosport-Honda contingent.

New team Harding Racing did well to get within 1.2sec of Power’s fastest with 2014 Indy Lights champion Gabby Chaves.

Meanwhile Belardi Auto Racing’s Aaron Telitz, became the first current Indy Lights driver to sample the 2018 IndyCar aerokit, testing James Hinchcliffe’s #5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car. He was 0.8sec off the Canadian ace’s best.

Testing times:

1. Will Power, Team Penske-Chevrolet, 69.14sec, 84 laps

2. Jordan King, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, 69.19sec, 68 laps

3. Josef Newgarden, Team Penske-Chevrolet, 69.22sec, 81 laps

4. Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske-Chevrolet, 69.30sec, 105 laps

5. Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing-Honda, 69.35sec, 75 laps

6. Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, 69.40sec, 77 laps

7. Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, 69.45sec, 92 laps

8. Pietro Fittipaldi, Dale Coyne Racing-Honda, 69.54sec, 70 laps

9. Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport-Honda, 69.54sec, 48 laps

10. Marco Andretti, Andretti-Herta Autosport-Honda, 69.58sec, 54 laps

11. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport-Honda, 69.64sec, 64 laps

12. Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport-Honda, 69.65sec, 66 laps

13. Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, 69.67sec, 55 laps

14. Ed Jones, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, 69.72sec, 100 laps

15. Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, 69.78sec, 36 laps

16. Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, 70.07sec, 70 laps

17. Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, 70.12sec, 46 laps

18. Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing-Chevrolet, 70.20sec, 67 laps

19. James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, 70.52sec, 50 laps

20. Aaron Telitz, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, 71.32sec, 55 laps