Long Beach IndyCar: Herta tops practice again, beats Penskes

Andretti Autosport-Honda’s James Hinchcliffe turned the first 69.0 lap of the 45min session, less than 10mins in, with an average of 102.587mph around the 1.968-mile course at which he won in 2017.

At that point in proceedings, that was a quarter second clear of the chasing pack, led by Long Beach first-timer and championship leader Alex Palou, who had a near miss with the Turn 1 exit wall.

Then Pato O’Ward turned a 69.0486sec lap to go top, the #5 Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet apparently far more to his taste after being a depressed 16^th in yesterday’s practice. Then Josef Newgarden moved his Team Penske-Chevrolet to the top of the times with 69.0343sec, while yesterday’s fastest driver Colton Herta brushed the wall with his left-front on the exit of the fountain turn.

With 25mins left to go, Alexander Rossi sat in fourth, behind Newgarden, O’Ward and Hinchcliffe, 0.2sec off the top, but ahead of Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

Herta then ducked into the 68s – a 1min08.9704sec – before outbraking himself into Turn 1 and having to take to the run-off zone. Simon Pagenaud, in what we believe will be his final IndyCar race weekend for Team Penske, moved up to fifth, while Romain Grosjean, after investigating runoffs on three occasions, moved his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda into sixth, swiftly followed by Ed Jones in the Coyne-Vasser Sullivan car clocking seventh.

Herta moved the bar still lower, with a 68.6859sec – the first 103mph lap of the weekend – with Will Power jumping into second place but three-tenths behind.

Alexander Rossi, who won the last two GPs of Long Beach, moved into second, less than a tenth off his young teammate.

On his first attempt on reds, Ryan Hunter-Reay clipped the inside wall at Turn 8, bouncing him out into the exit wall, so he had to saunter back to pits with his damaged car.

Then the Penske-Chevrolets sprang to prominence, with Power producing a 68.1277sec (103.993mph) on his alternate tires, with Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin completing a Penske 1-2-3… but only briefly, as Hinchcliffe moved into third.

And then Herta scorched around the track with a stunning 67.9783sec (104.221mph), 0.15sec ahead of Power.

Palou’s first attempt at a qualifying sim on the reds were stymied by traffic, while Pagenaud ensured all four Penskes were in the top six.

Then out came the red flag, as Scott Dixon skittered into the Turn 1 tire-wall and stalled.

Felix Rosenqvist ended up a hair quicker than AMSP teammate O’Ward who ended the session in the Turn 9 run-off, while Grosjean and Harvey completed the Top 10.

Qualifying will start at 12.05pm local (Pacific) time.