Colton Herta once again logged the fastest time in the second practice session from Long Beach, completing a circuit in 1:07.9783.
The 21-year-old has been on a tear lately, and seems to really have a handle the difficult street course, even though he ended up brushing the wall just after the fountain turn and needed to spend some time in the pits as his Andretti Autosport crew looked over the car.
Will Power logged the second fastest time, lapping the 1.968-mile course just 0.14 seconds slower than the best lap of the day.
Yesterday’s runner up Simon Pagenaud looked quick again and placed his Team Penske Chevy in fifth on the timesheets.
Pato O’Ward looked much more grounded during his laps, and he was able to improve drastically from his time on Friday. The title hopeful ended the morning session in eighth.
Getting into the groove
Times were drastically quicker than yesterday’s session on account of the extra rubber that has been laid down overnight from some drift racing that is playing support this weekend.
The extra grip also helped the drivers to stay on course, with no red flags interrupting the 45-minute session bar one being shown just as time expired.
That didn’t mean that drivers weren’t pushing, however, and many found themselves having to execute a quick flick-turn to get back out of the runoff areas.
Romain Grosjean in particular learned the maneuver well after he overshot the braking zones at least three times.
Ryan Hunter-Reay made a bit bigger mistake and found one of the concrete barriers near the end of the run. He lost out the final 15 minutes as his crew set to work repairing the suspension damage.
Scott Dixon found the tire barriers on account of his mistake at time was expiring, and managed to do some damage to his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Championship battle looming closer
Long Beach was one of a few races that were cancelled last season due to the COVID pandemic, meaning that it has been two years since drivers have seen the tricky course.
It is back on the schedule this year, but as the season finale instead of in its normal slot in the early part of the year.
That means that all eyes will be on the championship, as Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward sort out who is going to be the 2021 champion.
There are a few permutations due to bonus points coming into play, but if Palou finishes in the top 10, he is guaranteed to earn the Astor Cup.
The sophomore Spanish driver looked calm and fast again in the second practice session, but ended the day down in 16th on account of traffic getting in his way.
All will be decided this weekend, with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach taking place this Sunday at 3:00PM Eastern Time.
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