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