It was a much better second half of the day for Pato O’Ward and Arrow McLaren after struggling for pace earlier on in the day. The Mexican topped the final practice session under the floodlights around the Worldwide Technology Raceway.
With qualifying set, the third session of the weekend started out with the high line practice which is conducted to help prepare the track for race day.
The field is split into two groups who are highly encouraged to run high up the track to lay down rubber which in affect should pay dividends for the racing product.
The high line practice went as expected, with no major action as there was no need to push especially seeing what happened to Andretti’s Colton Herta in qualifying earlier in the day.
There was however some minor drama as Alexander Rossi was handed the black flag as the McLaren driver was penalized for running 6 of his 9 laps below the dotted white line.
It was Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist who traded times at the top for group A as the sun set in St Louis, 170.069 being the fastest lap of the session by Rosenqvist.
The aforementioned Herta found himself able to compete in group B, not for as long as he would have liked, as he also found himself getting shown the black flag. Despite this, the damage to the rear of his car was fixed between practice and qualifying, allowing him laps getting used to the high line which will likely be something he will have to use to as he tries to scythe his way through the field in the race.
Where group A was topped by a Meyer Shank Racing machine that has looked quick all day, group B saw a resurgence of Chip Ganassi Racing. Alex Palou finished top with 170.347mph despite a less than ideal qualifying, with his teammate Scott Dixon, who will also have to serve a penalty, not far behind in second.
Once the cars were refueled and the tyres were changed, everyone headed back out for the last session before the race, this time in conditions that should mirror what we will see in the main event.
As the speed ramped up during the opening moments of the session the lead changed hands multiple times before eventually settling down 10 minutes in, Josef Newgarden heading the field.
Where some looked to be setting fast laps, many were testing how their cars handled in traffic, running the high line and making some moves.
The first caution came 15 minutes into the session as Nolan Siegel, who was running third, was struck by a scary front right puncture seemingly out of nowhere as he headed into turn one. The 19 year old making the smart decision to duck to the inside as he crawled his way back to pit road.
When the session went back to green, not all cars chose to head back out immediately, deciding to stay in and make adjustments to their machines. One of those being polesitter Scott McLauglin who found himself sitting in pit lane for an extra 15 minutes as he made changes to fix the loose rear end of his car.
With 30 minutes left in the session, O’Ward took the top spot, a much better latter half of the day for the Mexican, who along with the rest of his Arrow McLaren team, struggled in the opening two sessions.
The only thing of note in the next ten minutes was again thanks to Herta, this time stalling in the pit lane after trying to move off after making a couple of changes to handling.
The next caution came with 17 minutes left in the session as the track inspection protocol was triggered, allowing for final little tweaks for the cars under the lights.
The green eventually flew once again with eight minutes left in the session, it was not long before the next incident happened as Conor Daly brushed up against the wall, whilst not causing a yellow, the 78 car was forced into the pits to assess the damage.
Despite the late restart, nobody was able to take the top spot away from O’Ward who topped the timesheets of practice two with 174.708mph.
Three of the other four places in the top five were taken up by Andretti cars as Marcus Ericcsson was second, Herta was third, Newgarden was fourth and Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top five.
