As all the drivers got a chance to try the extra grip provided by Firestone’s alternate compound red-sidewalled tires, Hunter-Reay worked down to a 1min16.3598sec laptime of the 2.35-mile course, a mre 0.0069sec faster than Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports recovered well from a poor morning session, clocking third (James Hinchcliffe) and ninth (Robert Wickens), Hinch just heading the top Chevrolet runner, which again was Josef Newgarden.

Marco Andretti, Alexander Rossi and Zach Veach ensured all Andretti cars were in the top 10, while last year’s double Detroit winner Graham Rahal was sixth.

Pagenaud was seventh, a couple of tenths off teammate Josef Newgarden, but 0.08sec ahead of his other teammate Will Power. The #12 driver appeared to add the Belle Isle paddock to his post-Indy 500 tour, after getting it wrong in Turn 7 but carrying on down the escape road, driving past parked semis to rejoin the course at Turn 11. He finished the session in 12^th.

Other drivers had moments, including Hinchcliffe and Sebastien Bourdais, and Tony Kanaan brought out a red flag by slamming into the Turn 3 tires, thankfully at slow speed. But the other red flag was for King who hit a bump on turn-in for Turn 11, the rebound sending him off line and into the concrete barrier, slamming both left wheels hard into the wall, buckling his suspension. Without accurate steering, the ECR car was then spat across the road to mess up its right side, too.

IndyCar, Detroit second practice

Cla	#	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	16	1'16.3598			110.791
2	9	Scott Dixon	13	1'16.3667	0.0069	0.0069	110.781
3	5	James Hinchcliffe	10	1'16.4840	0.1242	0.1173	110.611
4	1	Josef Newgarden	14	1'16.5864	0.2266	0.1024	110.463
5	98	Marco Andretti	15	1'16.6198	0.2600	0.0334	110.415
6	15	Graham Rahal	12	1'16.7098	0.3500	0.0900	110.286
7	22	Simon Pagenaud	11	1'16.7888	0.4290	0.0790	110.172
8	27	Alexander Rossi	17	1'16.7898	0.4300	0.0010	110.171
9	6	Robert Wickens	13	1'16.7974	0.4376	0.0076	110.160
10	26	Zach Veach	16	1'16.8133	0.4535	0.0159	110.137
11	18	Sébastien Bourdais	12	1'16.8458	0.4860	0.0325	110.091
12	12	Will Power	16	1'16.8647	0.5049	0.0189	110.064
13	30	Takuma Sato	13	1'17.1359	0.7761	0.2712	109.677
14	59	Max Chilton	16	1'17.2151	0.8553	0.0792	109.564
15	14	Tony Kanaan	9	1'17.3910	1.0312	0.1759	109.315
16	21	Spencer Pigot	14	1'17.4324	1.0726	0.0414	109.257
17	10	Ed Jones	15	1'17.5319	1.1721	0.0995	109.116
18	19	Santino Ferrucci	15	1'17.5554	1.1956	0.0235	109.083
19	88	Gabby Chaves	15	1'17.7024	1.3426	0.1470	108.877
20	23	Charlie Kimball	17	1'17.7271	1.3673	0.0247	108.842
21	4	Matheus Leist	19	1'17.9567	1.5969	0.2296	108.522
22	20	Jordan King	2	1'18.9823	2.6225	1.0256	107.113
23	32	Rene Binder	12	1'20.4577	4.0979	1.4754	105.148