The second practise session of the weekend is underway at Long Beach under a very cloudy sky. Canapino is the first driver to end up in the runoff zone at Turn 1 on his earliest attempt on cold tyres, while Lundgaard goes on tops as the first driver in the 1:10s. He is joined shortly after by Grosjean and defending race winner Kyle Kirkwood, who takes the provisional P1 with a 1:10.0172s
Mclaughlin makes slight contact with the wall, but no damage on his front wing comes out of it. Kirkwood is consistently the fastest driver as he’s the first to pull a 1:07s ahead of Rosenqvist and Newgarden.
MSR’s Tom Blomqvist and ECR’s Christian Rasmussen both end up as well in the runoff at Turn 9, with the two rookie drivers are still adapting to the street circuit.
Will Power makes contact with the wall, bending his rear left suspension and damaging his tyre. The two times IndyCar champion makes his return to the pits to fix the damage.
Ten minutes into the session O’Ward leads with a 1:07.512s from McLaughlin, Newgarden, Herta and Blomqvist. McLaughlin, the top finishing Penske driver in 2023, improves the McLaren man’s previous best time to 1:07.2463s.
Grosjean is the next driver to make contact with the wall and pick up damage, as he’s forced to return to the pits, while his Juncos Hollinger teammate Canapino goes into the Turn 6 runoff as well.
Power’s return on track might take a little longer than expected due to damage to his rear wing as well caused by his previous hit.
Lundgaard and Kirkwood post laps in the 1:06s with 26 minutes to go in the session, as well as reigning champion Alex Palou. Herta is the next driver to cycle at the lead with a 1:06.5918s. Best performing rookie is Rasmussen just outside of the provisional top ten.
Photo credits: Penske Entertainment | Chris Owens
Theo Pourchaire, on his second official session as an Arrow McLaren driver behind the wheel of car no. 6 in David Malukas’s place, makes slight contact with the wall but without causing any damage to his car, as he later slots in P16 with a 1:07.493s.
Power returns on track with 15 minutes to go into the session. Herta still holds the lead, with his Andretti teammate Kirkwood and Palou on the provisional podium, Grosjean and Lundgaard to round off the top 5.
Ferrucci is last on the standings due to on and off electrical issues preventing him from running the session as usual, with his AJ Foyt teammate Sting Ray Robb not that much up the standings in P26, struggling with power cuts and pacing issues.
The first and only red flag of the session comes with 9 minutes to go to the end of the session, as Will Power crashes at Turn 8 again but is unable to get his car running again, smashing the nose of his car no.12.
Herta’s fastest time is now a 1:06.4886s, with Kirkwood 0.139s off his teamnmate’s performance and Palou right behind the duo, followed by McLaughlin and Grosjean.
After the session restarted, Siegel in his second IndyCar race almost runs into the back of Lundgaard and Blomqvist hit the wall, but is able to steer and stop his car off track at the runoff at Turn 4, waiting for the final 2 minute sof the session to pass by. Newgarden and Canapino also have a moment:
The timetable vastly changed in the final seven minutes: last year’s winner Kyle Kirkwood takes P1 with a best lap of 1:06.473s, a bit faster than yesterday’s best effort, slighlt ahead of his teammate Colton Herta and RLL’s Christian Lundgaard. St. Pete’s almost pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist and Scott McLaughlin complete the top 5.
