Herta was the first driver to drop into the 66-second bracket around the 1.968-mile course, clocking a 1m06.5710s on his sixth lap which at the time left him half a second clear of the field. However with 35 minutes to go, a spin at Turn 6 caused last year’s Long Beach winner to strike the wall with his rear wing.
While this was being fixed, Scott McLaughlin and Felix Rosenqvist threw in strong laps, the latter’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet only 0.0730s slower than Herta. The Swede’s team-mate Pato O’Ward then had a brief trip into the Turn 9 runoff that required a pushstart.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, FP1 pacesetter Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing) and Grosjean also got within two-tenths of Herta. Dixon might have improved still further but had a miraculous escape from a half spin at Turn 4 that saw him clip the concrete with his right-front wing, requiring a return to the pits.
With 18 minutes to go, Herta lowered his time and got down to 1m06.2138s.
His closest opposition was St. Petersburg winner and championship leader, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who was 0.3781s behind in the leading Chevrolet entry. Then Grosjean hit the top with a 1m06.0675s on Firestone primaries, just as everyone was starting to switch to the softer alternates.
First of these to show potential pole-winning pace was Pagenaud, who threw down a 1m05.9989s.
Potential challengers to this top time were temporarily put on hold, as Ganassi driver Jimmie Johnson, nursing a fracture in his splinted right hand after yesterday’s accident, slid nose-first into the Turn 1 tyre wall on his 15th lap.
Power ended up as the only Chevy-powered runner in the top seven for Team Penske
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
Once his car was cleared, everyone restarted the session with 10 minutes to go using Firestone reds, but swiftly the session was stopped again as rookie David Malukas slid quite gently straight into the tyre wall at the Fountain turn and stalled his Dale Coyne Racing machine.
Malukas was briefly joined by Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), but the Briton was able to back up and restart himself.
Harvey’s team-mate Graham Rahal did the same after the session restarted, striking the tyres hard enough to dislodge his front wing.
With two minutes to go, Herta hit the front again with a 1m05.8353s lap, before team-mate and two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi slotted into second, one-tenth behind.
Fellow Andretti driver Grosjean did even better however, grabbing P1 with a 1m05.6520s run to head an Andretti 1-2-3. Herta responded but fell 0.0451s short.
Disrupting the Andretti dominance at the last gasp was another two-time Long Beach winner Will Power, who emerged as the fastest Chevrolet runner, the #12 Team Penske moving into third albeit 0.2863s off Grosjean’s benchmark.
Pagenaud, another Andretti-affiliated driver, ended up fifth, ahead of Ganassi drivers Marcus Ericsson and defending series champion Alex Palou.
Kiwis McLaughlin and Dixon finished eighth and ninth, while rookie Kyle Kirkwood grabbed 10th for AJ Foyt Racing.
IndyCar Long Beach FP2 results: