As anticipated since yesterday, the second and final free practice of the Long Beach Grand Prix have brought about a substantial reduction in the track record, which since 2017 belonged to Hélio Castroneves with a 1:06.225 in the qualifying session. It was not necessary to wait for it, since until nine drivers have posted a fastest time, five of them under the 1:06 barrierin a morning session held in much more optimal temperature conditions than yesterday.
Colton Hertha, who managed to damage his rear wing in a contact with the wall, was the first to beat Castroneves’ record by just 12 thousandths, and Simon Pagenaud the first to venture in the 1:05, but the fastest time ended up in the hands of Romain Grosjeanwho completely flipped his low-key Friday records to lead with a 1:05.652, with which he lowered the previous record by more than half a second. On his second visit to Long Beach, the French driver managed to resist a final improvement by his teammate Herta, who was 45 thousandths behind and is once again a clear candidate for pole position.
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In fact, Andretti Autosport came close to a hat-trick that could only be prevented Will Power by improving by four thousandths the record of alexander rossi, the last driver to beat Pagenaud’s time. Below the previous record they also rode the leader Scott McLaughlin and Ganassi’s three main pilots, including a Álex Palou who repeated the seventh position in Free Practice 1. With a time of 1:06.059, the Spanish driver overtook Scott Dixon and was only 15 thousandths behind Ericsson, who was once again the best of his team, and will aspire in tonight’s classification to get into the Fast 6 of the fight for pole.
Completing the top 10 the young Kyle Kirkwood, which continues to show convincing signs and finished just ahead of Castroneves himself. All this, after a session that passed quietly until a bumpy finish with three red flags. He opened the season 11 minutes from the end Jimmie Johnson, whose participation was in doubt after yesterday suffering a fracture in his left hand for not letting go of the steering wheel in his accident at turn 5. Today, trying to recover his feelings, the seven-time NASCAR champion went wide in the first turn and hit the protections. This time he did take his hands off the wheel, although expressing clear frustration at what had happened.
In hindsight, the relative lack of grip in the fountain area this morning led to two additional outages. In the first one the rookie found the protections David MalukasJack Harvey going long in the same area seconds later, and on the second occasion it happened with Graham Rahal, damaging both their front wings. Being a session at very early hours (it started at 08:45 local time), as the day progresses the temperatures will rise a bit and the contrast with yesterday will be less in qualifying (21:05), but the riders are already warned about which areas require more excellent care.
RESULTS OF THE FREE 2 OF LONG BEACH
Photos: IndyCar Media