COTA IndyCar: Power leads Rosenqvist in second practice

With drivers getting the chance to run the softer-compound Firestones, the 2014 champion, who took pole in the season-opener, nailed a 1min47.4401sec lap of the 3.41-mile course, an average speed of 114.259mph.

He beat Felix Rosenqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s rookie, by 0.1749sec with Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay third and fourth for Andretti Autosport-Honda.

Fifth fastest was Ed Jones in the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, despite nursing a broken finger, legacy of a big shunt in the St. Petersburg race.

Zach Veach was spectacular in a third Andretti machine, lapping faster than the Penskes of Simon Pagenaud and this morning’s pacesetter Josef Newgarden and also Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato.

2018 Indy Lights champion Patricio O’Ward was 11th for Carlin-Chevy in his second IndyCar event, while 2017 Indy Lights champ Kyle Kaiser was 22nd in the first outing of the year for Juncos Racing-Chevy.

In an additional session that serves as the warm-up and hot pitstop practice, Pagenaud led the way and Colton Herta – who blew an engine in this morning’s session – was immediately up to speed albeit on a fresh set of reds.

Practice times:

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	12	Will Power	Team Penske	1'47.4401
2	10	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'47.6150	0.1749
3	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'47.9311	0.4910
4	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'48.1209	0.6808
5	20	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'48.1597	0.7196
6	26	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1'48.1988	0.7587
7	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'48.2728	0.8327
8	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'48.3484	0.9083
9	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'48.4497	1.0096
10	18	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1'48.4585	1.0184
11	31	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1'48.5212	1.0811
12	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'48.5311	1.0910
13	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'48.5328	1.0927
14	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1'48.5541	1.1140
15	59	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'48.5643	1.1242
16	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'48.5735	1.1334
17	7	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'48.9461	1.5060
18	4	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'49.0534	1.6133
19	98	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1'49.1639	1.7238
20	21	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'49.2359	1.7958
21	19	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1'49.2512	1.8111
22	32	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing	1'50.5787	3.1386
23	14	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'51.6903	4.2502