IndyCar headed back on track today for Practice 2 on the streets of St. Petersburg with Christian Lundgaard setting the fastest lap.
Christian Lundgaard Sets Fastest Lap
Christian Lundgaard came through towards the later stages of group 2 to set the fastest lap with 1:01.615.
The Danish driver has been looking to secure his next win after his first won in Toronto three years ago. Since joining Arrow McLaren at the start of last year he’s had six podium finishes.
All-Car Session Results
Alexander Rossi was the one to beat for a majority of the all-car practice session but it was Rinus Veekay who ended up setting the fastest lap. He set a time of 1:02.938.
Rounding out the top five behind Veekay were Christian Lundgaard, Álex Palou, Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden
Rookie driver Dennis Hauger finished sixth fastest and finished 13th fastest by the end of practice as a whole.
Group Session Results
Group 1 hit the track and Florida native Kyle Kirkwood had a strong practice session. Kirkwood has demonstrated dominance over street circuits in the past, including two street circuit wins last year. He finished fastest in the session with a time of 1:01.738.
Other drivers who came out strong include Marcus Ericsson, who’s won at St. Pete in the past. Pato O’Ward set a lap time of 1:01.947 making him second fastest on the grid temporarily.
Scott McLaughlin was looking to match his lap time yesterday which helped put him at the top of the leaderboard at the end of Practice 1. He managed to bump O’Ward down to third fastest in Group 1
During Group 2, Alexander Rossi was the one to watch. After a fairly dominant stint during the all-car session, Rossi set the fastest time for a majority of the session. Ultimately, it was Christian Lundgaard who set the fastest lap.
Red Flags and Incidents
Throughout practice today, the track conditions were changing as it progressively got more dry after rainfall last night.
The first incident of today happened early on during Will Power’s outlap. The newest driver of the No. 26 for Andretti Global locked up at the apex of a turn. As a result of the incident, the front wing of the car needed major repair work done.
The Andretti Global garage will be working to fix the car in time for this afternoon. As of right now, Power is expected to participate in qualifying later today.
The red flag was brought back out after an incident involving Christian Rasmussen. His car skidded out of place and slowly rolled forward towards the wall, damaging the nose of the car.
Time came to an end after a late-session incident happened involving the No.4 car for A. J. Foyt Racing. Caio Collett went into the wall, causing major damage to the car. Similar to Andretti Global, the team will be looking ahead to getting ready for qualifying.
Qualifying takes place later today at 4:30p.m. EST. The green flag waves tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. EST to see who will take home the first win of the season on the streets of St. Petersburg.