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Alexander Rossi paced another NTT IndyCar Series practice at Road America ahead of Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix but five red flags interrupted proceedings in the 45-minute practice session.
Rossi’s fastest lap was 1:40.9112s to average 143.199mph. Second fastest was Colton Herta, 0.1472 seconds behind Rossi. Felix Rosenqvist was third fastest ahead of David Malukas and New Zealand’s Marcus Armstrong.
The top 12 drivers in the session went faster than Rossi’s quick time in Friday’s practice session.
The first red flag of the session came following IndyCar Series points leader Alex Palou’s Turn 14 spin in the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
The IndyCar safety team brought the car to pit lane and the session resumed.
“I was just trying to push, trying to see where the limit was and trying to see how fast we could go before crashing,” Palou said.
“Didn’t want to crash, obviously, so yeah, not the best start of practice two, hopefully we have enough time. Obviously the car is super-fast and yeah, the guys are going to have to work quite a lot now.”
During Palou’s interview, there was another red flag as Scott Dixon and Will Power collided on the way to Billy Mitchell bend. Dixon spun at Canada Corner and let Romain Grosjean through. Power was following close behind and Dixon moved across the track, not knowing how close Power was to the #28 Andretti Autosport Honda.
The pair collided and went into the wall on the left side of the track shortly before the left-hander. After the pair came to a stop, an agitated Power angrily confronted Dixon, showing the six-time IndyCar champion the Double Birds Power made famous at New Hampshire in 2011.
“We were on really old tyres, almost 20-lap old tires trying to get some balance checks,” Dixon said.
“Spun going into [Turn] 12. I saw Grosjean out of my mirror after I kind of recovered and then I didn’t realize Power was even there. Really sorry for him and obviously his team, just yeah, mistake on my behalf and feel frustrated for obviously wrecking our car and his car as well.”
Power was dejected after the incident as his crew began rebuilding the #12 Team Penske Chevrolet.
“Scott moved abruptly and I was coming and it’s a very unfortunate incident, just nothing I could really do there,” Power said. “Didn’t expect him to move and yeah. Such a pity – felt like we had a pretty good car. We’ll rebuild it and see what happens there, yeah. Not a good situation, but these things happen.”
The session’s third red flag came after Santino Ferrucci spun the #14 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet in Canada Corner, stalling the car in the process. Herta also had a spin at Canada Corner within the final five minutes of the session, causing another red flag that ended the Californian’s session due to IndyCar’s rules mandating a five-minute penalty for any driver that causes a red flag in practice.
The session’s final red flag came when Simon Pagenaud lost control of the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda on the way to the final corner, going off into the gravel trap and lightly brushing the wall with the left rear corner of the car. Pagenaud’s incident was late enough in the session that the session clock ran out under the red flag.
