IndyCar Road America: Palou shunts, Dixon and Power clash physically in FP2

Rossi topped the 45-minute session around the fabled 4.048-mile road course with a best lap of 1m41.9112s.

While the track is much faster on the racing line, thanks to the track’s first full repave since 1995 that took place last October and November, there’s a huge grip disparity off-line which has been catching out the unwary if they run wide.

The session was red-flagged after just seven minutes when championship leader Alex Palou flew off the track backwards at the final corner and slammed hard into the tire barrier as he spun, severely damaging the right side of his car.

The Spaniard had just set the fastest time of the session at that point at 1m42.1368s, but his Chip Ganassi Racing team have less than two hours to repair it before qualifying.

“I was just trying to push to see where the limit was,” Palou said. “I didn’t wanna crash, obviously, hopefully we have enough time [to fix it] as the guys are going to have to work a lot now. It’s not ideal, we lose a new tire run, but the car is fast.”

Upon the resumption there was an even more shocking incident, as Ganassi’s other star Scott Dixon – who had just spun on the exit of Canada Corner and let Romain Grosjean past before getting back up to speed – suddenly swerved into the path of Team Penske’s Will Power, who was on a hot lap.

The pair collided, smashing the left-front wheel from Dixon’s car before they both slammed into the concrete wall. Power, whose car suffered huge damage to three corners, immediately radioed: “What the ****? What the ****?”

Power then got out of his car and shoved an apologetic Dixon in the shoulder as he remonstrated with his fellow Antipodean. The pair then discussed the incident in the medical car on the way back to the infield care center, where they were given a clean bill of health.

A third red flag was required when Santino Ferrucci spun and stalled his AJ Foyt Racing car at Canada Corner, just after a third Ganassi driver, Marcus Ericsson, went off at the final corner and just missed the barrier. Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta earlier suffered a wild spin at Turn 7, during which he clipped an advertising sign but was able to return to the pits.

Alex Zanardi’s all-time fastest race lap of 1m41.874s was dipped under at the halfway point, with Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist going to the top of the times with a 1m41.2572s on primary tires.

Herta then took over with 1m41.0584s, a tenth up on Friday pacesetter Alexander Rossi (McLaren). Rossi then turned the tables, going 0.147s faster on his final lap of 1m40.9112s on primaries, while Herta spun at Canada Corner to cause a fourth red flag.

Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing) then caused a final red by going off at the final corner in the closing moments of the incident-packed session.

Rosenqvist stayed third, just ahead of David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing), Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi), Ferrucci, Pato O’Ward (McLaren), Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti), Scott McLaughlin (Penske) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing).

Dario Franchitti’s qualifying track record of 1m39.866s will be tested in qualifying later at 12:55pm local time (1:55pm ET).

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	14	1'40.9112			143.199
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	12	1'41.0584	0.1472	0.1472	142.991
3	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren	13	1'41.2572	0.3460	0.1988	142.710
4	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	15	1'41.3010	0.3898	0.0438	142.648
5	Marcus Armstrong	Chip Ganassi Racing	15	1'41.3488	0.4376	0.0478	142.581
6	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	1'41.3534	0.4422	0.0046	142.574
7	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	11	1'41.3769	0.4657	0.0235	142.541
8	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	9	1'41.3858	0.4746	0.0089	142.529
9	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	14	1'41.4493	0.5381	0.0635	142.440
10	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	16	1'41.4517	0.5405	0.0024	142.436
11	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'41.5682	0.6570	0.1165	142.273
12	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	13	1'41.7095	0.7983	0.1413	142.075
13	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'41.9269	1.0157	0.2174	141.772
14	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	17	1'42.0164	1.1052	0.0895	141.648
15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'42.0724	1.1612	0.0560	141.570
16	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	15	1'42.0862	1.1750	0.0138	141.551
17	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	14	1'42.1872	1.2760	0.1010	141.411
18	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	13	1'42.1886	1.2774	0.0014	141.409
19	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ed Carpenter Racing	15	1'42.2807	1.3695	0.0921	141.282
20	Ray Robb	Dale Coyne Racing	14	1'42.2978	1.3866	0.0171	141.258
21	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	17	1'42.3454	1.4342	0.0476	141.192
22	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	15	1'42.5502	1.6390	0.2048	140.911
23	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	13	1'42.8979	1.9867	0.3477	140.434
24	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	16	1'43.0053	2.0941	0.1074	140.288
25	Will Power	Team Penske	5	1'43.7026	2.7914	0.6973	139.345
26	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	3	1'43.8228	2.9116	0.1202	139.183
27	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	2	1'46.2721	5.3609	2.4493	135.975
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