Portland IndyCar: Power leads Penske-Chevy 1-2-3 in FP2
Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin looked scarily dominant in second practice at Portland International Raceway, covered by just one-tenth, but over two-tenths clear of their nearest opposition.
Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Scott McLaughlin was the first driver to crack the 59sec barrier around the 1.964-mile road course in Portland, OR., with a 58.9384sec effort, but rookie David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda, who finished yesterday’s practice in second, grabbed top spot with a 58.8642sec.
Then Josef Newgarden slotted between the pair of them in his Penske, and Will Power moved up to fourth, but still only 0.1104 off P1.
Conor Daly and Rinus VeeKay showed a reassuring turn of speed to go fifth and sixth fastest for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, and Graham Rahal shaded them both in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda. Power moved to the top with his 13th and 14th laps to move 0.24sec clear of McLaughlin who also leapfrogged Malukas. Power’s new benchmark was 58.3946sec, a 121.080mph lap.
McLaughlin then slashed Power’s advantage to less than one tenth of a second.
Romain Grosjean, whose transmission woes yesterday meant he was unable to complete a run on Firestone’s softer alternate compound tires, was the first Andretti Autosport-Honda driver to crack the top five, although he was still 0.4883 behind Power, and was then edged by teammate Alexander Rossi. In fact, Rossi – who started and finished second here in 2021 – went on to move up to third, but still 0.44sec from P1.
Newgarden re-emerged with 12mins to go to move up to fourth, but more startling was Callum Ilott – at the track on which he made his IndyCar debut last year – moving the Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy up to fifth.
With seven minutes left, Colton Herta – 2019 Portland polesitter – moved up to third, but was relegated to fourth when Newgarden’s final flyer moved him to a mere 0.0137sec adrift of teammate Power.
With just four minutes to go, Scott Dixon moved up to fifth, before outbraking himself for Turn 1, slotting between two advertising hoardings in the run-off, wending his way through the tortuous chicanery and rejoining the track.
That allowed rookie Christian Lundgaard and senior teammate Graham Rahal to move into fifth and sixth.
Dixon’s teammates and fellow title contenders Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson finished the session 13th and 15th, while Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist were only 10th and 21st respectively.
Qualifying begins at 12.05pm local (Pacific) time.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Team |
1 |
Will Power |
58.3946 |
- |
14 |
27 |
121.080 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
2 |
Josef Newgarden |
58.4083 |
0.0137 |
24 |
27 |
121.051 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
3 |
Scott McLaughlin |
58.4910 |
0.0964 |
17 |
30 |
120.880 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
4 |
Colton Herta |
58.7201 |
0.3255 |
17 |
18 |
120.409 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian |
5 |
Christian Lundgaard |
58.7463 |
0.3517 |
23 |
24 |
120.355 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
6 |
Graham Rahal |
58.7479 |
0.3533 |
29 |
29 |
120.352 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
7 |
Scott Dixon |
58.7696 |
0.3750 |
20 |
23 |
120.307 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
8 |
Alexander Rossi |
58.8380 |
0.4434 |
18 |
25 |
120.167 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport |
9 |
Callum Ilott |
58.8439 |
0.4493 |
19 |
26 |
120.155 |
Chevy |
Juncos Hollinger Racing |
10 |
Pato O'Ward |
58.8511 |
0.4565 |
20 |
23 |
120.140 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren SP |
11 |
David Malukas |
58.8642 |
0.4696 |
5 |
21 |
120.114 |
Honda |
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
12 |
Romain Grosjean |
58.8829 |
0.4883 |
17 |
25 |
120.076 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport |
13 |
Alex Palou |
58.9023 |
0.5077 |
20 |
27 |
120.036 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
14 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
58.9253 |
0.5307 |
23 |
27 |
119.989 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
15 |
Marcus Ericsson |
59.0013 |
0.6067 |
24 |
25 |
119.835 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
16 |
Simon Pagenaud |
59.0320 |
0.6374 |
15 |
26 |
119.772 |
Honda |
Meyer Shank Racing |
17 |
Devlin DeFrancesco |
59.0427 |
0.6481 |
16 |
24 |
119.751 |
Honda |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
18 |
Jack Harvey |
59.0467 |
0.6521 |
23 |
24 |
119.743 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
19 |
Conor Daly |
59.0857 |
0.6911 |
11 |
20 |
119.663 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
20 |
Rinus VeeKay |
59.1327 |
0.7381 |
22 |
24 |
119.568 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
21 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
59.1924 |
0.7978 |
17 |
22 |
119.448 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren SP |
22 |
Helio Castroneves |
59.3163 |
0.9217 |
21 |
25 |
119.198 |
Honda |
Meyer Shank Racing |
23 |
Takuma Sato |
59.3488 |
0.9542 |
27 |
29 |
119.133 |
Honda |
Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
24 |
Jimmie Johnson |
59.8229 |
1.4283 |
26 |
26 |
118.189 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
25 |
Dalton Kellett |
1:00.0258 |
1.6312 |
23 |
28 |
117.789 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
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