From top of practice one to a huge accident in practice two. Scott McLaughlin suffers a major impact through the catch fence ending the whole session prematurely. Álex Palou tops a traffic filled and red flag prone practice ahead of championship rival Kyle Kirkwood.
Traffic in the Early Stages
The green flag saw the field all come out on the Hard tyre. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’ward set an early precedent of a 1:07.498. Before O’ward traded the P1 spot with David Malukas a couple of times, A.J. Foyt Racing Rookie Caio Collet had solid opening laps putting himself momentarily into top spot.
Rookie Mick Schumacher showed improvements from yesterday’s runs on the hard tyre shooting up to first place. He went ahead of O’ward and Malukas but was notably on new tyres.
Rinus Veekay, similarly looked promising with early best middle sector, repeating evidence of him being strong at Barber Motorsports Park. The track looked to be ramping up with several drivers skating around finding the limit. A limit which saw Rasmussen have a rear lock up and a big spin.
Traffic struggles saw frustration run high with several drivers having to back off the find a bigger gap. Louis foster cut it close with Santino Ferrucci, who was attempting to find a big enough gap for a lap by letting him through. O’ward and Will Power similarly lost out on strong laps due to traffic.
Two Red Flags
The session had two red flags. The first of which was brought out by the number six of Nolan Siegel. The McLaren driver got aggressive on the throttle over the crest, spinning into a close miss with barrier. The American found the car was stuck in gear swiftly leading to a red flag to clear the track.
McLaughlin brought out the second red flag with a terrifying high-speed crash. The Team Penske driver dipped a wheel in the grass entering turn one. The crash looked to be over 150 miles per hour into the barrier. With the car catching in the gravel and barrelling through the catch fence the impact looked heavy.
The New Zealand driver got out of the car safely. Yesterday’s practice topper, when talking about the accident, told Georgia Henneberry “I knew I was done.”
A Practice Cut Short
The destruction of Turn One barriers prevented the two-group session from getting underway. With the announcement that the barrier repair was so large that the 12-minute sessions would not go underway.
For the second weekend in a row, the number three of McLaughlin crashed in the second practice after topping the first one. A fate he suffered last time out in Arlington. The race weekend in which he later also hit the wall in qualifying. He damaged his left- front significantly.
Palou went to the top with a 1:06.468 with just three minutes left on the clock moments before the red flag came out. He took the top spot one head of championship leader Kirkwood and two ahead of an impressive Veekay.
McLaughlin’s car made it back to the garage with many from Team Penske inspecting the car to determine if he’d need a new chassis for qualifying. Can the New Zealand driver bounce back, or will he suffer a similar destiny to last time out?