Colton Herta led the way at the end of second practice for the Grand Prix of Portland, with surprise names gracing the top five.
Green flag
At the green flag, the field took to the track ahead of all important qualifying. McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard and AJ Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci started the day on the back foot, as both incurred a six-place grid penalty for engine changes.
The times came thick and fast in the opening minutes, with Josef Newgarden leading after the first runs. Herta lay second, with Will Power putting two Penskes inside the top three, having a wide moment after turn six.
The track began to ramp up, offering more grip and speed. Drivers found almost a second of lap time compared to Friday on their opening runs. Devlin DeFrancesco, Pato O’Ward and David Malukas all enjoyed brief moments at the top of the timesheets.
DeFrancesco, although dropping down the times as others finished their laps, kept reappearing at the top end of the times in the opening ten minutes. Running, third, leading and moving into third again, RLL showed genuine pace, running in third.
Alex Palou took to the track with 35 minutes to go, along with Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard jumped to the top of the times after his first run, with Palou slotting into fifth, the Spaniard pushing hard on his runs.
With thirty minutes to go, Lundgaard remained on top from Alexander Rossi and Louis Foster. Marcus Armstrong and Meyer Shank continued to impress, running in sixth. Sting Ray Robb then signaled his intentions by going faster than Armstrong.
Outside championship protagonist Pato O’Ward was conspicuous in his absence from the front of the field, running in 16th.
Final 25 minutes of Portland GP Practice 2 leads to competitive front of grid
After no changes at the front of the field, the order began to fluctuate with 25 minutes remaining. Christian Rasmussen, Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson all enjoyed brief stints at the top of the leaderboard.
Palou was now 11th, and not showing any signs of improving his position. O’Ward was having a much worser time, running in 23rd.
Rinus Veekay now joined the names at the top of the order slotting into second behind Ericsson. His next run saw him move into P1.
DeFrancesco moved into P1 with 15 minutes to go, the Canadian continuing to make an appearance in the top three. He was usurped by Colton Herta a few minutes later.
DeFrancesco and Scott McLaughlin renewed their rivalry, with McLaughlin flipping off the RLL driver after runnning close on track.
Palou and Power found speed to move into second and third with ten minutes to go, with O’Ward moving up to eighth. The Penske of Newgarden materialised in the paddock, its session done due to an anomaly discovered in the data. Scott Dixon outlined Chip Ganassi’s pace by moving into third.
No improvements came in the closing minutes of second practice for the Grand Prix of Portland, leaving Colton Herta leading the way.
Session Classification
- Colton Herta
- Alex Palou
- Scott Dixon
- Will Power
- Devlin DeFrancesco
- Rinus Veekay
- Christian Lundgaard
- Louis Foster
- Marcus Ericsson
- Nolan Siegel
- Pato O’Ward
- Alexander Rossi
- Christian Rasmussen
- David Malukas
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Scott McLaughlin
- Callum Illot
- Marcus Armstrong
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Kyffin Simpson
- Conor Daly
- Robert Schwartzman
- Graham Rahal
- Santino Ferrucci
- Josef Newgarden
- Sting Ray Robb
- Jacob Abel
