Laguna Seca IndyCar: Hunter-Reay tops second practice
Ryan Hunter-Reay put his Andretti Autosport-Honda on top in second practice, as three cars cracked the 70sec barrier around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

All but two entries ran the softer red-sidewalled Firestone compounds to set their best times, but it was Hunter-Reay who clipped 0.02sec from Felix Rosenqvist’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda to edge to the top with a 69.9105sec lap of the 2.238-mile course.
Behind Rosenqvist, FP1 pacesetter Colton Herta put his Harding Steinbrenner Racing-Honda into third, while Simon Pagenaud was top Chevrolet runner in fourth, bouncing back from an off into the Turn 1 gravel, from which he extracted himself.
Less lucky was Scott Dixon in the second Ganassi car, who simultaneously spun off at Turn 10 and caused a red flag, the subsequent penalty costing him the last five minutes of the session.
Santino Ferrucci’s Dale Coyne Racing-Honda was fifth, just ahead of points leader Josef Newgarden in the second fastest Penske, while Will Power was seventh after a mild off at Turn 11 when attempting a second qualifying simulation.
Marcus Ericsson of Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, Charlie Kimball of Carlin-Chevrolet and Marco Andretti showed promise with ninth through 11th.
Max Chilton in the second Carlin car and title contender Alexander Rossi stayed on Firestone primaries for that session.
The second part of the session, the so-called warm-up and pitstop practice, saw two red flags caused by Ed Jones and Herta failing to negotiate the first left-hander of the exceedingly tight pitlane entrance and stalling.
By leaving his fresh set of reds until this second part of the session, Rossi was easily able to emerge on top with a time eight-tenths faster than his nearest opposition, teammate Hunter-Reay.
Several teams minimized their pitstop practice in order to try and maximize their time on red tires to check their duration. Power ran 18 laps and saw a two-second drop-off, while teammate Pagenaud also looked very strong across his albeit shorter red-tire stint.
Rossi shut his engine down as he exited the Corkscrew on his final lap, as he had run out of fuel. He admitted to the media later it was simply to save the fuel pumps, but the car was able to coast from Turn 8A down the hill, negotiate pitlane entry and still reach his pitbox, albeit at painfully slow pace by the end.
Sebastien Bourdais’ Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan car did not take part in this 'warm-up' session due to neck pains that prompted a visit to IndyCar medical.
Third practice starts at 10am local (Pacific) time.
Session results:
'Warm-up'/Pitstop practice
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | | | 11 | 1'10.0988 | 114.935 | ||
2 | | | 14 | 1'10.8926 | 0.7938 | 0.7938 | 113.648 |
3 | | | 11 | 1'10.8950 | 0.7962 | 0.0024 | 113.644 |
4 | | | 14 | 1'11.0371 | 0.9383 | 0.1421 | 113.417 |
5 | | | 12 | 1'11.1182 | 1.0194 | 0.0811 | 113.287 |
6 | | | 18 | 1'11.6939 | 1.5951 | 0.5757 | 112.378 |
7 | | | 19 | 1'11.8590 | 1.7602 | 0.1651 | 112.120 |
8 | | | 18 | 1'11.8839 | 1.7851 | 0.0249 | 112.081 |
9 | | | 18 | 1'11.9168 | 1.8180 | 0.0329 | 112.029 |
10 | | | 18 | 1'12.1161 | 2.0173 | 0.1993 | 111.720 |
11 | | | 14 | 1'12.1296 | 2.0308 | 0.0135 | 111.699 |
12 | | | 14 | 1'12.1402 | 2.0414 | 0.0106 | 111.683 |
13 | | | 19 | 1'12.3297 | 2.2309 | 0.1895 | 111.390 |
14 | | | 17 | 1'12.4342 | 2.3354 | 0.1045 | 111.229 |
15 | | | 19 | 1'12.5036 | 2.4048 | 0.0694 | 111.123 |
16 | | | 19 | 1'12.6557 | 2.5569 | 0.1521 | 110.890 |
17 | | | 14 | 1'12.6597 | 2.5609 | 0.0040 | 110.884 |
18 | | | 19 | 1'12.6807 | 2.5819 | 0.0210 | 110.852 |
19 | | | 14 | 1'12.7008 | 2.6020 | 0.0201 | 110.821 |
20 | | | 19 | 1'12.8349 | 2.7361 | 0.1341 | 110.617 |
21 | | | 18 | 1'13.0335 | 2.9347 | 0.1986 | 110.316 |
22 | | | 16 | 1'13.3935 | 3.2947 | 0.360 | 109.775 |
23 | | | 14 | 1'13.4652 | 3.3664 | 0.0717 | 109.668 |
View full results |

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