Yahoo Autos Lundgaard leads Power, Dixon in second Indy GP practice
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard led second practice for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis, ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon.
The first 12 minutes of the session were dominated by former winners on the Indianapolis road course — Power, Alexander Rossi of Arrow McLaren and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing.
Then they were deposed by Marcus Armstrong’s Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Pato O’Ward’s McLaren and then Lundgaard was the first to crack 70 seconds. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda lapped the 2.439-mile road course in 1m09.9476s, an average speed of 125.528 mph.
Another improvement from O’Ward and Agustin Canapino — Juncos Hollinger Racing’s star in this morning’s first practice session — both edged ahead of Lundgaard.
Turn 10 produced spins for Marcus Ericsson (Andretti Global) and Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing), but it was Jack Harvey of Dale Coyne Racing who spun and stalled and brought out the red flag.
Penske’s Barber Motorsports Park winner Scott McLaughlin jumped to the top with 20 minutes to go, turning a 1m09.8648s effort on his 14th lap, with Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist falling just 0.0317s short of displacing him. Power was 0.0464s short yet only fourth, two thousandths behind O’Ward.
With less than five minutes remaining, Dixon shot to the top with a 1m09.8565s, but was immediately eclipsed by Power, who produced a 1m09.6899s, just outside the 126mph bracket. That looked like it might be it, but Lundgaard trimmed 0.1311s off Power’s benchmark to end the session on top.
McLaughlin retained fourth ahead of Rosenqvist and O’Ward, while Armstrong made it three New Zealanders in the top seven.
Canapino hung in with an impressive eighth, ahead of Graham Rahal, who bounced back from zero flying laps this morning to set ninth with his new engine. Josef Newgarden completed the top 10.
Qualifying is set to start at 4.20pm ET.
