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Practice report

Laguna Seca IndyCar: McLaughlin tops second practice

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s rookie Scott McLaughlin ducked under the 71s barrier to top second practice at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in a session interrupted by two red flags.

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Chevrolet

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Chevrolet

Art Fleischmann

The three-time Supercars champion delivered a 1min10.8755sec lap of the 2.238-mile course, an average speed of 113.675mph, which put him 0.1469sec clear of Andretti Autosport’s 2019 Laguna Seca pole-winner Colton Herta.

Third fastest was championship leader Alex Palou, the only Chip Ganassi Racing driver in the Top 10, with Simon Pagenaud and Will Power fourth and fifth for Penske.

Felix Rosenqvist was the quicker of the two Arrow McLaren SP, after title challenger Pato O’Ward flat spotted one of his tires, while Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay ensured there were three Andretti cars in the Top 10.

After the green flag waved following a shunt for Rinus VeeKay, there were just four minutes remaining, and all cars headed out for a trial run of the softer Firestone ‘reds’.

The Turn 4 shunt completed a scrappy session for the Ed Carpenter Racing driver who had early in the session ventured through the Turn 2 gravel after roasting his left-front tire under braking.

He wasn’t the only driver to cause a red flag, as Dalton Kellett also backed his car off the track at Turn 4.

Takuma Sato was lucky not to bring out the reds after a wild excursion through the sand and gravel exiting the uphill Turn 5, but his Rahal Letterman Lanigan car demolished a couple of advertising hoardings as it went broadside, but managed to avoid the tyres and the two-time Indy 500 winner was able to regain the track without outside assistance.

Callum Ilott, set to make his second IndyCar start tomorrow, did an impressive job to land 19th fastest time, the Juncos-Hollinger driver just 1.2sec from top spot.

Qualifying starts at 2.05pm local (Pacific) time. 

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 16 1'10.875   113.675
2 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 16 1'11.022 0.146 113.440
3 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'11.031 0.155 113.426
4 France Simon Pagenaud United States Team Penske 17 1'11.338 0.462 112.938
5 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 14 1'11.393 0.518 112.850
6 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 13 1'11.460 0.584 112.746
7 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 14 1'11.491 0.615 112.696
8 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay United States Andretti Autosport 9 1'11.520 0.645 112.650
9 United Arab Emirates Ed Jones United States Dale Coyne Racing 17 1'11.580 0.705 112.556
10 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 14 1'11.611 0.736 112.507
11 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Meyer Shank Racing 10 1'11.703 0.828 112.362
12 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 11 1'11.716 0.840 112.343
13 Canada James Hinchcliffe United States Andretti Autosport 14 1'11.722 0.847 112.333
14 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 13 1'11.844 0.969 112.142
15 United States Oliver Askew United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 1'11.921 1.045 112.022
16 France Romain Grosjean United States Dale Coyne Racing 11 1'12.050 1.175 111.821
17 United Kingdom Max Chilton United Kingdom Carlin 14 1'12.059 1.184 111.807
18 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 15 1'12.095 1.219 111.752
19 United Kingdom Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing 16 1'12.111 1.236 111.727
20 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 12 1'12.134 1.259 111.691
21 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 15 1'12.281 1.406 111.464
22 France Sébastien Bourdais United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 11 1'12.333 1.458 111.384
23 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 15 1'12.412 1.537 111.262
24 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 18 1'12.431 1.555 111.234
25 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 12 1'12.585 1.710 110.997
26 Japan Takuma Sato United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 1'12.867 1.992 110.568
27 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 3 1'13.030 2.155 110.321

 

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