The NTT IndyCar Series held its second practice session on the streets of Long Beach Saturday morning.
At the midpoint of the weekend, the public street course had built up a significant amount of rubber on the racing line.
The darker sections were not necessarily a benefit, however, as much of the impacted rubber was from IMSA’s Michelin tires instead of IndyCar’s Firestone compounds. Drivers struggled to judge just how much grip they would have as they circled the 1.97-mile course.
Kyle Kirkwood was able to get the most out of the track, turning a quick lap of 1:07.5417 on the harder compound tire.
Kirkwood has won two of the last three races in Long Beach, and looks as if he has the pace to challenge for another victory.
David Malukas was second quick in his Team Penske Chevy, although he was nearly a quarter of a second off the pace.
Pato O’Ward was third quick as he looks to break a curse of sorts he has at Long Beach, followed by reigning champion Alex Palou in fourth on the timesheets.
After topping the charts on Friday, Will Power was down in 14th Saturday morning. It may well be that his performance on the softer compound is considerably better, which will bode well for him in qualifying later in the day.
More damage
After missing out on the entirety of Friday’s practice, Mick Schumacher was able to turn his first laps at speed in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry.
The rookie’s brand new Honda engine was up to the task on the second day of the weekend, powering him to 22nd place after completing 24 laps.
He would have had even more under his belt, but he found the tire barriers at the fountain near the end of the session.
Schumacher’s front wing and suspension were damaged, though nothing more serious appeared to be broken in the incident.
There was a couple other stoppages, including when Nolan Siegel slightly misjudged Turn 8 and smacked the left side of his car into the concrete barriers.
He attempted to bring his Arrow McLaren Chevy back to the pits, but broken suspension on the left front forced him to pull to the side of the course.
Romain Grosjean also hit the wall, with an over-correction to a slide sending him hard into the barriers at Turn 1.
His Dale Coyne Racing Honda was heavily damaged, and the session was stopped early due to the cleanup time needed.
Grosjean was already 25th and last on the timesheets, and his crash served to make his morning even more disappointing.
During Friday’s practice, only 11 drivers were within one second of the fastest time of the session. On Saturday morning, 19 were within one second, showing how much the field is converging as the weekend progresses.
Next up is qualifying at 3:30 PM Pacific Time, where that close pace differential could make for a shaken up grid.
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