Barber IndyCar: Rossi tops disrupted second practice

Ex-Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean was the first of the runners to duck under the 1m07s barrier, with the IndyCar rookie logging a 1m06.942s lap in his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda, despite flirting with the dirt exiting Turn 13.

Colton Herta had moved to the top of the timesheets prior to a brief stoppage to retrieve Dalton Kellett’s spun and stalled AJ Foyt machine at Turn 5, but he then made a mistake of his own at Turn 2.

The Andretti Autosport machine understeered off and traversed the gravel trap before smacking the Armco barrier with his left front wheel. The suspension and front wing were damaged in the impact, which Herta attributed to trying too hard with tires not yet up to temperature.

“It was a silly move by me, it bit me and that sucks because I won’t get to try the red tires [before qualifying] now,” he said.

With just nine minutes to go, the green waved again, and almost everyone hit the track on the alternate compound tires, with Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet first to displace Herta atop the timesheets before being surpassed himself by team-mate Felix Rosenqvist on a 1m06.394s.

FP1 pacesetter Alex Palou then edged his Chip Ganassi Racing machine into top spot by mere hundredths before the third red flew when Josef Newgarden - whose Team Penske machine had earlier had its steering wheel detach - came to a halt on the main straight.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport

Photo by: Chris Owens, IndyCar

In the final flourishes, reigning champion Scott Dixon usurped Ganassi team-mate Palou only for Rossi and Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi) to bump him back to third.

Palou was fourth ahead of former Ganassi driver Rosenqvist, with series returnee Ed Jones slotting into sixth for Coyne.

O’Ward was seventh, just ahead of Team Penske's Will Power, while Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank Racing) completed the top 10.

Newgarden’s troubled session left him 14th, but in worse shape still were Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, with 2019 winner Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal only 20th and 23rd.

Rookie Jimmie Johnson was the first to take on the softer Firestone tires, but the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion hit traffic so didn’t get the full benefit. He ended up 1.8s adrift of Rossi, completing the 24-car field.

Results

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'06.079
2	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'06.219	0.139
3	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'06.301	0.222
4	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'06.320	0.240
5	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	1'06.394	0.315
6	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	1'06.474	0.395
7	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'06.515	0.435
8	Will Power	Team Penske	1'06.523	0.443
9	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'06.559	0.479
10	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1'06.589	0.509
11	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'06.622	0.542
12	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	1'06.664	0.584
13	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	1'06.679	0.599
14	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'06.716	0.636
15	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	1'06.755	0.675
16	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'06.788	0.708
17	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR	1'06.856	0.776
18	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'07.097	1.017
19	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'07.099	1.019
20	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.276	1.196
21	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'07.304	1.225
22	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'07.464	1.384
23	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.468	1.388
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'07.882	1.802
View full results