Herta dominates second Laguna Seca test session
Harding Steinbrenner Racing’s rookie Colton Herta set a time over four tenths clear of the IndyCar field in the four-hour afternoon test session at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Herta, 19, set a time of 1min10.0720sec, an average of 114.979mph to beat Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power by 0.4663sec.
On his final run on fresh tires, Power was on a theoretically better lap than his previous best when he encountered a slower car at the uphill left Turn 6 and his subsequent off brought out the red flag, earning him a five-minute penalty. The #12 team elected to sit out the remaining seven minutes of the session.
Felix Rosenqvist was another driver who had to serve five minutes in the sin-bin for causing a red flag, but he finished the session third and still turned more laps than anyone – 72 – in the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.
Late improvements by the other two Penskes of title contenders Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud saw them improve to fourth and eighth respectively, separated by Graham Rahal, this morning’s pacesetter Scott Dixon, and the fastest Andretti Autosport-Honda, that of Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Newgarden’s nearest title challenger, Alexander Rossi, was ninth, 0.75sec off the ultimate pace and mere hundredths ahead of teammate Zach Veach.
Conor Daly, driving a fifth Andretti car, was a commendable 13th, 0.14sec off his fastest teammate’s time.
First official practice begins at 10.30am local (Pacific) time on Friday.
Session results:
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 88 | Colton Herta | Harding Steinbrenner Racing | 1:10.072 | --.---- |
| 2 | 12 | Will Power | Team Penske | 1:10.538 | 0.4663 |
| 3 | 10 | Felix Rosenqvist | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:10.590 | 0.5176 |
| 4 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 1:10.640 | 0.5684 |
| 5 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:10.771 | 0.6989 |
| 6 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:10.789 | 0.7174 |
| 7 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 1:10.809 | 0.7370 |
| 8 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 1:10.813 | 0.7411 |
| 9 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 1:10.823 | 0.7511 |
| 10 | 26 | Zach Veach | Andretti Autosport | 1:10.831 | 0.7588 |
| 11 | 7 | Marcus Ericsson | Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1:10.888 | 0.8156 |
| 12 | 19 | Santino Ferrucci | Dale Coyne Racing | 1:10.947 | 0.8750 |
| 13 | 25 | Conor Daly | Andretti Autosport | 1:10.948 | 0.8756 |
| 14 | 18 | Sebastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan | 1:11.075 | 1.0029 |
| 15 | 59 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:11.171 | 1.0985 |
| 16 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1:11.231 | 1.1586 |
| 17 | 14 | Tony Kanaan | AJ Foyt Enterprises | 1:11.282 | 1.2102 |
| 18 | 98 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian | 1:11.299 | 1.2275 |
| 19 | 23 | Charlie Kimball | Carlin | 1:11.366 | 1.2942 |
| 20 | 60 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM | 1:11.369 | 1.2969 |
| 21 | 4 | Matheus Leist | AJ Foyt Enterprises | 1:11.380 | 1.3084 |
| 22 | 21 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:11.392 | 1.3199 |
| 23 | 30 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:11.414 | 1.3418 |
| 24 | 20 | Ed Jones | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:11.438 | 1.3655 |
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