Toronto IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud top in shortened second practice

Pagenaud moved to the top only eight minutes into the session with a 1m00.0773s effort, and improved the benchmark to 1m00.0218s a few minutes later.

The question of whether he could have gone faster still was rendered academic by two late red flags that cut short the available running time.

At the point where the session stopped, it was looking like the Frenchman would have needed to work hard to retain his place in P1.

Four other drivers managed to lap within 0.1s of his best time, with Helio Castroneves coming closest at 1m00.0134s, though he was also responsible for the first, and longest, stoppage when his car came to a halt at Turn 8 just as the session hit the 30 minute mark.

The cause of the problem was not immediately clear, with the Brazilian simply reporting that he had lost power.

His stricken car took 11 minutes to clear, and the session had only just returned to green when Ryan Briscoe spun and stalled.

That prompted another red that swiftly changed to a chequered flag in order to allow time for a quick rehearsal of tomorrow's scheduled standing start.

Behind Pagenaud and Castroneves were Scott Dixon, Will Power and James Hinchcliffe, with less than a tenth of a second covering the top five.

Juan Pablo Montoya was seventh, behind Sebastien Bourdais, while the pace-setter in first practice Josef Newgarden ended FP2 13th.

Pos Driver              Team/Engine        Time        Gap      Laps
 1. Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt/Honda      1m00.0084s            21
 2. Helio Castroneves   Penske/Chevy       1m00.0218s  +0.0134s  17
 3. Scott Dixon         Ganassi/Chevy      1m00.0769s  +0.0685s  23
 4. Will Power          Penske/Chevy       1m00.0932s  +0.0848s  22
 5. James Hinchcliffe   Andretti/Honda     1m00.0937s  +0.0853s  23
 6. Sebastien Bourdais  KV/Chevy           1m00.1786s  +0.1702s  21
 7. Juan Pablo Montoya  Penske/Chevy       1m00.3021s  +0.2937s  17
 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay    Andretti/Honda     1m00.3077s  +0.2993s  24
 9. Ryan Briscoe        Ganassi/Chevy      1m00.5359s  +0.5275s  26
10. Carlos Munoz        Andretti/Honda     1m00.5477s  +0.5393s  22
11. Justin Wilson       Coyne/Honda        1m00.6086s  +0.6002s  21
12. Takuma Sato         Foyt/Honda         1m00.6538s  +0.6454s  19
13. Josef Newgarden     Fisher/Honda       1m00.6579s  +0.6495s  21
14. Charlie Kimball     Ganassi/Chevy      1m00.7072s  +0.6988s  23
15. Jack Hawksworth     Herta/Honda        1m00.8693s  +0.8609s  22
16. Graham Rahal        Rahal/Honda        1m00.9142s  +0.9058s  23
17. Marco Andretti      Andretti/Honda     1m00.9263s  +0.9179s  14
18. Sebastian Saavedra  KV/Chevy           1m00.9300s  +0.9216s  21
19. Tony Kanaan         Ganassi/Chevy      1m00.9510s  +0.9426s  21
20. Mikhail Aleshin     Schmidt/Honda      1m00.9571s  +0.9487s  23
21. Luca Filippi        Rahal/Honda        1m01.0550s  +1.0466s  18
22. Mike Conway         Carpenter/Chevy    1m01.2656s  +1.2572s  21
23. Carlos Huertas      Coyne/Honda        1m01.2667s  +1.2583s  21