Practice report
IndyCar Birmingham
Barber IndyCar: Rossi tops disrupted second practice
Alexander Rossi sent Andretti Autosport-Honda to the top of the times at Barber Motorsports Park, some consolation for the team as it rebuilds the front end of the crashed car of teammate Colton Herta in time for qualifying.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Apr 19, 2021, 12:40 PM
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Ex-F1 driver and IndyCar rookie Romain Grosjean was the first of the runners to duck under the 67sec barrier, with a 66.9421sec lap in his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda, despite flirting with the dirt exiting Turn 13.
Fellow rookie, Jimmie Johnson, was the first to take on the softer Firestone tires but hit traffic so didn’t get the full benefit.
Soon after Colton Herta moved to the top for Andretti Autosport-Honda and Scott McLaughlin on alternates took P3 for Team Penske-Chevrolet, there was a brief red to retrieve Dalton Kellett’s spun and stalled AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy from the exit of Turn 5.
Then on his 12th lap, after making an adjustment in the cockpit, Herta understeered off the track at Turn 2, traversed the gravel trap and smacked the Armco barrier with his left front wheel, breaking the suspension and front wing. He admitted afterward that he went too fast with tires not yet up to temperature, commenting: “It was a silly move by me, it bit me and that sucks because I won’t get to try the red tires [before qualifying] now.”
With just nine minutes to go, the green waved again, and almost everyone hit the track on the alternate compound tires. Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet hit the top spot despite encountering two batches of traffic. In backing off to get some clear track, he accidentally blocked Will Power’s Team Penske-Chevrolet, and then his teammate Felix Rosenqvist jumped to the top of the times with a 66.3948sec.
This morning’s pacesetter Alex Palou edged his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda into P1 by mere hundredths before the third red flew for Newgarden trickling down the main straight after a major fishtail moment exiting the final turn after the engine burped with an overboost. The three-time Barber winner had already had an alarming moment on his very first lap of the session when his steering wheel came fully detached from its spindle.
The cars were allowed out for one last flyer and Ganassi’s six-time and reigning champion Scott Dixon bounced to the top, but was then displaced by Rossi and his own teammate Marcus Ericsson.
Said Rossi: “It’s good, it was difficult there, every new tire run, on blacks or reds, got interrupted [by red flags], so all good right now, when we rolled off I was good with car. Obviously it’s hotter now than this morning. Overall we’re in the decent position for this afternoon.”
Palou completed a Ganassi 2-3-4, ahead of Rosenqvist, with Ed Jones slotting into sixth for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan Honda. O’Ward was seventh, just ahead of Power who ran off the track at Turn 5.
Conor Daly was an impressive ninth for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, just ahead of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Jack Harvey.
Newgarden’s troubled session left him 14th, but in worse shape still were Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda – the team that dominated the last event here – with Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal only 20th and 23rd.
Impressively, despite his relative lack of knowledge of the Firestone reds, Jimmie Johnson was just 1.8sec from top spot.
Qualifying begins at 4.55pm local (Central) time.
P
No
Name
FTime
Diff
Gap
FL
Laps
FSpeed
Engine
Tire
Team
1
27
Alexander Rossi
1:06.0797
1:06.0797
0.000
18
18
125.303
Honda
A
Andretti Autosport
2
8
Marcus Ericsson
1:06.2190
0.1393
0.1393
18
18
125.040
Honda
A
Chip Ganassi Racing
3
9
Scott Dixon
1:06.3018
0.2221
0.0828
17
17
124.883
Honda
A
Chip Ganassi Racing
4
10
Alex Palou
1:06.3204
0.2407
0.0186
17
18
124.848
Honda
A
Chip Ganassi Racing
5
7
Felix Rosenqvist
1:06.3948
0.3151
0.0744
12
14
124.709
Chevy
A
Arrow McLaren SP
6
18
Ed Jones
1:06.4747
0.3950
0.0799
15
16
124.559
Honda
A
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
7
5
Pato O'Ward
1:06.5150
0.4353
0.0403
15
15
124.483
Chevy
Ao
Arrow McLaren SP
8
12
Will Power
1:06.5230
0.4433
0.0080
17
20
124.468
Chevy
A
Team Penske
9
20
Conor Daly
1:06.5593
0.4796
0.0363
11
14
124.400
Chevy
A
Ed Carpenter Racing
10
60
Jack Harvey
1:06.5894
0.5097
0.0301
14
17
124.344
Honda
A
Meyer Shank Racing
11
14
Sebastien Bourdais
1:06.6222
0.5425
0.0328
18
19
124.283
Chevy
A
AJ Foyt Enterprises
12
3
Scott McLaughlin
1:06.6643
0.5846
0.0421
15
18
124.204
Chevy
A
Team Penske
13
29
James Hinchcliffe
1:06.6793
0.5996
0.0150
12
13
124.176
Honda
A
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
14
2
Josef Newgarden
1:06.7161
0.6364
0.0368
16
17
124.108
Chevy
A
Team Penske
15
26
Colton Herta
1:06.7551
0.6754
0.0390
9
11
124.035
Honda
P
Andretti Autosport
16
28
Ryan Hunter-Reay
1:06.7885
0.7088
0.0334
13
15
123.973
Honda
A
Andretti Autosport
17
51
Romain Grosjean
1:06.8561
0.7764
0.0676
17
17
123.848
Honda
A
Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
18
22
Simon Pagenaud
1:07.0970
1.0173
0.2409
18
21
123.403
Chevy
A
Team Penske
19
21
Rinus VeeKay
1:07.0995
1.0198
0.0025
6
14
123.399
Chevy
A
Ed Carpenter Racing
20
30
Takuma Sato
1:07.2764
1.1967
0.1769
19
19
123.074
Honda
A
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21
59
Max Chilton
1:07.3047
1.2250
0.0283
17
17
123.023
Chevy
P
Carlin
22
4
Dalton Kellett
1:07.4645
1.3848
0.1598
14
17
122.731
Chevy
A
AJ Foyt Enterprises
23
15
Graham Rahal
1:07.4681
1.3884
0.0036
17
20
122.725
Honda
A
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24
48
Jimmie Johnson
1:07.8821
1.8024
0.4140
7
17
121.976
Honda
A
Chip Ganassi Racing
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