A second IndyCar practice session was held Saturday afternoon, with 25 drivers tackling the new street course in Washington D.C. under fully dry conditions.
Times tumbled as rubber continued to be worked into the asphalt and as confidence built with more and more laps turned.
Scott McLaughlin set the bar in the early portion of the session with a lap that was two tenths faster than any other driver, but his time was bested later on by the reigning champion.
Alex Palou set a lap in just 56.6145 seconds and an average speed of 108.100 MPH, which was the fastest of the session.
Kyle Kirkwood, who set the fastest time in the morning, was second quick for the second practice session.
Scott Dixon was third quick, followed immediately by all three Arrow McLaren drivers to fill out the top six positions on the time sheets.
The first red flag during the session was for Graham Rahal, who lost control under braking and glanced off the concrete walls heading into Turn 6.
The suspension and driveshaft on the #45 RLL entry was damaged enough that he was not able to get around to pit lane on his own, so his run was done after only seven laps.
Rahal’s team-mate Louis Foster lost control in the same corner, and ended up smashing the nose of his car into the barriers and bringing out another red flag.
Both drivers struggled with their setups before their crashes, and they will look to find any adjustments that can help for the rest of the weekend.
That same area is proving to be a common problem up and down the grid, however, with big bumps in the braking zones causing lots of issues for drivers.
Pato O’Ward, Nolan Siegel, and Will power all ran into the runoff in Turn 6 as well, although they were able to get spun around and back on track without any damage.
The next session for drivers will be a knockout qualifying run starting at 5:00 PM eastern time.
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