Ryan Hunter-Reay went fastest in a patchy second IndyCar practice session at Long Beach, with track time interrupted four times by red flags.
Hunter-Reay produced a 1m09.4224s to take the top spot for Andretti Autosport, leaving Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s series returnee Mike Conway second-quickest with a time just 0.0379 seconds off that set by the reigning champion.
Early leader Will Power finished up with the third-best lap in his Penske entry, although the constant interruptions made it hard for all teams to string together meaningful runs.
Sebastian Saavedra triggered the first stoppage with one of the more entertaining incidents of the season so far.
The Colombian overshot Turn 6 and went into the escape road, flicked his car around so that he was facing toward the track again, slammed the throttle to get himself back onto the circuit, and immediately lost the rear and hit the barrier.
The next red flag was prompted when Justin Wilson went wide and hit the wall, leaving the trailing Simona de Silvestro with nowhere to go except into the rear section of Wilson’s car. The pair were sitting eighth and ninth respectively at the time of the crash.
Scott Dixon’s turn came next, the Kiwi sideswiping the Turn 9 barrier and coming to rest in the middle of the track with both sets of left-side suspension broken.
The session was completed when EJ Viso crashed in the final minutes, bringing proceedings to an early end.
Teams have one more practice session on Saturday morning before going into qualifying in the afternoon.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m09.4224s 2. Mike Conway Rahal Dallara-Honda 1m09.4603s + 0.0379s 3. Will Power Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m09.5166s + 0.0942s 4. Tristan Vautier Schmidt Dallara-Honda 1m09.5657s + 0.1433s 5. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m09.6608s + 0.2384s 6. James Jakes Rahal Dallara-Honda 1m09.7664s + 0.3440s 7. Alex Tagliani Herta Dallara-Honda 1m09.7829s + 0.3605s 8. Dario Franchitti Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m09.7891s + 0.3667s 9. Takuma Sato Foyt Dallara-Honda 1m09.9197s + 0.4973s 10. James Hinchcliffe Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m10.2298s + 0.8074s 11. Scott Dixon Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m10.2431s + 0.8207s 12. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Dallara-Honda 1m10.2472s + 0.8248s 13. Marco Andretti Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m10.3292s + 0.9068s 14. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon Dallara-Chevy 1m10.3735s + 0.9511s 15. Justin Wilson Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m10.4208s + 0.9984s 16. Simona de Silvestro KV Dallara-Chevy 1m10.4872s + 1.0648s 17. JR Hildebrand Panther Dallara-Chevy 1m10.4906s + 1.0682s 18. Tony Kanaan KV Dallara-Chevy 1m10.4956s + 1.0732s 19. AJ Allmendinger Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m10.5424s + 1.1200s 20. EJ Viso Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m10.8132s + 1.3908s 21. Josef Newgarden Fisher Dallara-Honda 1m11.1275s + 1.7051s 22. Ana Beatriz Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m11.1949s + 1.7725s 23. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy 1m11.2345s + 1.8121s 24. Charlie Kimball Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m11.3759s + 1.9535s 25. Sebastian Saavedra Dragon Dallara-Chevy 1m11.3819s + 1.9595s 26. Ed Carpenter Carpenter Dallara-Chevy 1m11.6747s + 2.2523s 27. Graham Rahal Rahal Dallara-Honda 1m17.9843s + 8.5619s
