– Mick Schumacher (RLL-Honda; 6th) showed a strong performance in the heavily shortened second free practice at Laguna Seca Raceway. Due to reconstruction work after the Porsche horror crash in the Zanardi Corkscrew, the IndyCar drivers only had 25 minutes available, and a group phase was omitted.
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Schumacher quickly established himself in the top 10 during the session and set the eighth-best time in the first run. However, it was still unclear which programs the drivers were running, as such short sessions are unfamiliar to all teams. (Result of 2nd Free Practice)
Many drivers improved, and Schumacher even dropped out of the top 20 with his first time. He improved again, but aborted the lap and drove through the pits. Towards the end, he then posted a fast time of 1:10.589 minutes, which earned him fifth place before he was pushed back by one position.
The German announced after the first free practice on Friday that he wanted to make setup changes, which apparently hit the mark. “The track was completely different during our test [on July 30]. Apparently, it has less grip. We had a few setup problems. We will fix that and hopefully look better on Saturday,” he said on Friday evening local time.
Schumacher is contesting his last race for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team this weekend and will switch to Meyer Shank Racing in 2027. There he will be teammates with Marcus Armstrong. His goal will be to leave RLL with a top result in the top 10 on a road course.
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The best time in a session without notable incidents was set by Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet; 1st) in 1:10.301 minutes, followed by Felix Rosenqvist (MSR-Honda; 2nd) and champion Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda; 3rd).
McLaughlin’s time stood out, as he had almost a quarter of a second lead over the entire field, which was within just over a second behind the second-fastest Rosenqvist.
Qualifying continues from 10:30 PM. Due to the shortened practice, the schedule should be able to be adhered to again.
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