IndyCar: McLaughlin tops 2nd practice in St. Petersburg
Scott McLaughlin was the only driver to get below the 1-minute mark to lead the 2nd practice for the Firestone GP of St. Petersburg.
McLaughlin in the #3 Penske Chevy turned a lap of 59.7342s to beat Andretti Autosport ace Colton Herta by 0.3509s.
However, there were so many crashes in the session, the other drivers never got a clean lap like McLaughlin did.
“I’m feeling great. The DEX Imaging Chevy feels really great so far,” said McLaughlin after practice.”
We’ve worked really hard together with my engineer Ben Bretzman. Jonathan Diuguid (former engineer) went on to bigger and better things, and he helped me a lot. We’ve worked really hard to fine-tune myself and what I want from the car. I’m very proud of this team. At the end of the day, it’s only practice and there is no such thing as a perfect lap. I’ll work on it and get better. We know we’ll have to come back stronger because it’s going to be tight.”
Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi and Will Power rounded out the top-5.
The fastest rookie was Kyle Kirkwood in 8th, who has Sebastien Bourdais on the radio helping him this weekend.
Drivers hitting the wall hard included Jack Harvey and Alex Palou. Both glanced off the inside barrier the corner earlier, which sent them hard into the outside wall on exit.
Yesterday’s fast man Romain Grosjean had a disastrous session. First he spun into the runoff area, then he had a total brain fade a read-ended Takuma Sato at a high speed. Sato was stuck in a group of cars trying to get a gap for a fast lap.
Jimmie Johnson spun 2 or 3 times and appears he hasn’t learned anything from last year.
Similar to practice 1, Tatiana Calderon was at the back with Johnson. However, she never drove this track before, so we must give her some benefit of the doubt.
Qualifying is up next – see qualifying groups below practice results.
Practice 2 Results
| Pos | No. | Name | Time | Diff | Gap | Speed | Engine | Team |
| 1 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 59.7342 | 0.000s | 0.000s | 108.481 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 2 | 26 | Colton Herta | 1:00.0851 | 0.3509 | 0.3509 | 107.847 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 3 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:00.0853 | 0.3511 | 0.0002 | 107.847 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 4 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | 1:00.1075 | 0.3733 | 0.0222 | 107.807 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 5 | 12 | Will Power | 1:00.1600 | 0.4258 | 0.0525 | 107.713 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 6 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:00.2104 | 0.4762 | 0.0504 | 107.623 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 7 | 10 | Alex Palou | 1:00.2364 | 0.5022 | 0.0260 | 107.576 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 8 | 14 | Kyle Kirkwood | 1:00.2402 | 0.5060 | 0.0038 | 107.569 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 9 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | 1:00.3333 | 0.5991 | 0.0931 | 107.403 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 10 | 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:00.3763 | 0.6421 | 0.0430 | 107.327 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 11 | 20 | Conor Daly | 1:00.3820 | 0.6478 | 0.0057 | 107.317 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 12 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | 1:00.3860 | 0.6518 | 0.0040 | 107.310 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 13 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | 1:00.3910 | 0.6568 | 0.0050 | 107.301 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 14 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 1:00.3919 | 0.6577 | 0.0009 | 107.299 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 15 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 1:00.4390 | 0.7048 | 0.0471 | 107.216 | Honda | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 16 | 30 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:00.4587 | 0.7245 | 0.0197 | 107.181 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 17 | 18 | David Malukas | 1:00.4872 | 0.7530 | 0.0285 | 107.130 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
| 18 | 77 | Callum Ilott | 1:00.6036 | 0.8694 | 0.1164 | 106.924 | Chevy | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 19 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | 1:00.7546 | 1.0204 | 0.1510 | 106.659 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 20 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:00.7970 | 1.0628 | 0.0424 | 106.584 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 21 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | 1:00.8203 | 1.0861 | 0.0233 | 106.543 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 22 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 1:01.3287 | 1.5945 | 0.5084 | 105.660 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 23 | 51 | Takuma Sato | 1:01.3591 | 1.6249 | 0.0304 | 105.608 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
| 24 | 45 | Jack Harvey | 1:01.3650 | 1.6308 | 0.0059 | 105.598 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 25 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 1:01.8848 | 2.1506 | 0.5198 | 104.711 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 26 | 11 | Tatiana Calderon | 1:02.1327 | 2.3985 | 0.2479 | 104.293 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
Qualifying Groups
Group 1
- Herta, Colton
- Rossi, Alexander
21 VeeKay, Rinus
14 Kirkwood, Kyle
7 Rosenqvist, Felix
06 Castroneves, Helio
2 Newgarden, Josef
30 Lundgaard, Christian
77 Ilott, Callum
9 Dixon, Scott
15 Rahal, Graham
45 Harvey, Jack
11 Calderon, Tatiana
Group 2
3 McLaughlin, Scott
60 Pagenaud, Simon
12 Power, Will
10 Palou, Alex
5 O’Ward, Pato
20 Daly, Conor
8 Ericsson, Marcus
29 DeFrancesco, Devlin
18 Malukas, David
28 Grosjean, Romain
4 Kellett, Dalton
51 Sato, Takuma
48 Johnson, Jimmie