Devlin DeFrancesco caused a red flag in the opening minutes of the session with an off-course excursion, before ten drivers soon set laptimes under 1m08s.
Alexander Rossi sent his Andretti Autosport-Honda to the top with a 1m07.872s lap, before he was swiftly replaced in P1 by Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.
However, the Swede was then demoted at the top by team-mate Pato O’Ward, then Romain Grosjean (Andretti), Will Power (Team Penske-Chevrolet) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet). VeeKay’s best effort, which edged Power by 0.005s and O’Ward by 0.057s, was a 1m07.196s (120.971mph) around the 2.238-mile course.
With less than 30 minutes to go, the two Kiwis flew into the top five, Scott McLaughlin’s Penske ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Scott Dixon, but soon after came the second red flag, caused by an off for Dalton Kellett of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet.
Then Josef Newgarden, yesterday’s pacesetter and the 2021 Mid-Ohio winner, went fastest with a 1m07.061s, just ahead of increasingly impressive rookie David Malukas in the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda.
Herta then put in a 1m07.027s aboard his Andretti Autosport-Honda, with Power responding with a slightly slower lap (just 0.003s) when he skated off at Turn 4, bringing out the third red flag of the session.
The evolution of the track was such that Herta and Power on primaries had set faster times than Newgarden’s best effort on the soft compound Firestone’s in yesterday’s first practice session.
Behind Newgarden and Malukas, defending IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou was fifth ahead of VeeKay, with O’Ward seventh ahead of McLaughlin, Dixon and Rossi.
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson had a wild 360-degree spin on the grass, yet was able to return to the
Ganassi #8 pits without obvious damage, but finished the session in 15th.
Paretta Autosport’s Simona De Silvestro was 24th, 1.94s off the ultimate pace, and 1.6s and 1.8s adrift of Ed Carpenter Racing teammates Conor Daly and VeeKay respectively.
Mid-Ohio IndyCar – FP2 result