– The second free practice session at the IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg (Florida) was a tough affair. The track was still damp at the beginning after overnight rain, and there were again three red flags within the first 40 minutes. With the already limited practice time in the IndyCar series, this was pretty much the last thing the field needed. (Result)
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Only the two twelve-minute segments, in which only half of the field drives at a time, ran without interruption. Mick Schumacher (RLL-Honda; 22.) was eligible to start in both sessions as a rookie. Unlike in the first practice session, the soft tires were not used this time, as they were primarily saved for the upcoming qualifying.
In the end, Schumacher finished 22. out of 25 vehicles. He was 1,291 seconds off the best time of 1:01.616 minutes set by Christian Lundgaard (McLaren-Chevrolet; 1.).
In his defense, it should be noted that his teammates fared little better: veteran Graham Rahal (RLL-Honda; 16.) and Louis Foster (RLL-Honda; 21.) also struggled on the demanding street circuit.
Will Power with heavy impact
At least the RLL drivers brought their vehicles back in one piece, which cannot be said for the competition. Two teams have a lot of repair work ahead of them.
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In the first 40 minutes, which were open to all vehicles, there were the aforementioned three interruptions. The first was caused, of all people, by a veteran again: after Scott Dixon the day before, it was Will Power (Andretti-Honda; 25.) this time, who heavily damaged his car.
On a track that was still partly damp, Power understeered into the wall. For the Australian, it is a conceivably bad start to the new chapter after his move from Penske to Andretti, which has not been going according to plan anyway with a car that is difficult to drive. The Andretti crew will have to use all their experience to get the car ready for action again by qualifying.
Afterwards, there were 20 minutes of free running, but activity was limited due to the damp patches. Just as the field was becoming more active, Christian Rasmussen (Carpenter-Chevrolet; 24.) lost control in Turn 2 and also crashed. However, the damage here remained significantly less than in Power’s case.
Finally, Caio Collet (Foyt-Chevrolet; 23.) caused an early end to the collective session. As a late consequence of a previous wall contact, the suspension broke in the braking zone at Turn 1. The Brazilian rookie was able to avoid an impact but stopped in the run-off area, which led to the session being aborted. The two twelve-minute segments that followed ran without interruption.
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Qualifying begins at 22:35 CET.
