Will Power ended the second practice session for the IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg fastest for Team Penske, finishing ahead of reigning champion Scott Dixon and teammate Simon Pagenaud.
Despite suffering a hefty shunt in the opening practice session on Friday, Power produced a lap of 1:00.9431 during the final minutes to usurp Dixon.
The session was interrupted early on by a red flag delay, after large chunks of the asphalt were pulled up at Turn 3 by Dixon and Helio Castroneves when their cars bottomed out.
This led to a 40 minute delay in proceedings as the Holmatro Safety Team rectified the issue.
As soon as the track was deemed safe all of the drivers returned to the track, as preparations ahead of Sunday's 110-lap race gathered momentum.
Despite rising to the top during the latter half of the session, Dixon was forced to settle for second, only 0.014 seconds off the lap set by Power.
After topping the opening practice session earlier in the day, Pagenaud ended the session third fastest, despite running off-track momentarily at Turn 4 during the final minutes of proceedings.
The top three were closely followed by Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato and James Hinchcliffe, the latter also making a late error before rejoining the action.
Carlos Munoz and Jack Hawksworth ended the session seventh and eighth respectively, with both drivers topping the times during the early stages of the session prior to the first red flag.
The top ten was rounded out by Team Penske teammate’s Castroneves and last year’s St. Petersburg winner Juan Pablo Montoya.
Further down the order rookie and former Formula 1 racer Alexander Rossi ended the session 13th fastest overall, despite causing the second red flag delay after running wide at Turn 10 and stalling his car.
Fellow rookies Max Chilton, Conor Daly and Spencer Pigot ended the session 18th, 20th and 22nd respectively, with Daly in particular rising towards the sharp end of the order during the early stages of the session.
