Day two, or day of Obliteration as it should be know, Indy Lights qualifying first up, Indycar practice and then qualifying later in the afternoon where we will see all the times in practice told us, the track record will be smashed. Driving in from Elmira, about 20 miles south of the track, cold, damp, foggy, mid 50's in F, whatever that is in C I can never figure out.No better way to arrive at the track in my opinion. It's warmer and sunnier at WGI, and should be set fair for another day of sunshine and remembering sun lotion, he says...
Lights qualifying, and as with yesterday the times are quick, early pace from Ed Jones, but a lull in proceedings as we wait for the the drivers to use their fresh tyres for a last attempt in the session as it draws to a close. It ended up with Santi Urritia on pole after a number of drivers swapped best times, Andre Negrao in second ad Ed Jones in third who was shall we say less than pleased with the actions of Urritia who he has accused of blocking whilst on his fastest lap.
The Indycar practice came next, Scott Dixon continued his domination of WGI, a fastest time o 1:22.8008, Power and Bourdais followed with the best Honda being Hinchcliffe in 4th, and Hawksworth in 5th. The session was halted for a brief period as Josef Newgarden spun on the toe of the boot and backed his car into the tyre barrier causing damage to his rear.
The big talk ahead of the Indy Lights race was tyre degradation.
The Indycar practice came next, Scott Dixon continued his domination of WGI, a fastest time o 1:22.8008, Power and Bourdais followed with the best Honda being Hinchcliffe in 4th, and Hawksworth in 5th. The session was halted for a brief period as Josef Newgarden spun on the toe of the boot and backed his car into the tyre barrier causing damage to his rear.
The big talk ahead of the Indy Lights race was tyre degradation.
So it proved, Starting in fifth, by the end of the first lap Zach Veach had made his way up to first, around one third distance, the first radio calls came through from drivers saying they were struggling, one of which has championship implications, Santi Urrutia lost his front left, and had to limp home the whole lap to get back to the pits. This allowed Ed Jones into second, Andre Negrao into third. Veach took his second victory of the season and keeps his championship hopes alive. Ed Jones closes the gap to Urrutia down to one point, 319 to 318. I caught up with Ed after the race.
Time for Indycar qualifying, and a number of spins, penalties made for confusing following with who made it though, who didn't and did eventually. But lets skip to the fast six, and a change from the tradition of reds being the tyre to be on, Bourdais showed the way to go by setting the fastest time. Scott Dixon came through in the end to take his 25th career pole and provide some relief after a tough past few weekends with a new lap record of 1:22.5259, some 5.6 seconds quicker than the previous lap record. In second, Will Power, Sebastian Bourdais in third, followed by Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Max Chilton. Jack Hawksworth starts in 10th.
The Indycar GP from is live on BT Sport ESPN at 7pm.
RSS Feed
