Herta had only one uninterrupted lap, but he made it count. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
IndyCar headed to the streets of downtown Detroit on Saturday morning for the second practice session of the weekend, and it was a busy event.
A total of 27 drivers took to the 1.645-mile track in an attempt to complete as many laps as possible, but due to heavy traffic, few were able to put in a clean lap.
Colton Herta managed to complete a single lap without interruptions from other drivers, and he flew to the top of the time sheets.
He finished his lap in 1:01.5726, two tenths of a second faster than his run on Friday and very close to last year’s fastest lap.
His Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood secured the second fastest time, followed by Alex Palou in third place.
Kirkwood was involved in an incident on pit lane at the end of the session, when he and Santino Ferrucci disagreed on each other’s on-track behavior during the practice session.
The two drivers made contact while jockeying for position in a line of cars at Turn 5, all searching for a clean section of track.
Upon returning to their boxes, Kirkwood approached Ferrucci to discuss the incident and was immediately pushed by the latter.
Although they were separated, insults were exchanged throughout the pit area.
Both drivers blamed each other in TV interviews and had unfavorable opinions about each other’s driving standards, not limited to just this weekend.
Ferrucci finished Saturday’s practice session in 20th place in his AJ Foyt Racing Chevy, 17 positions behind Kirkwood, and appeared to be more affected by the situation.
In fourth place was Theo Pourchaire, who has now secured his spot for the rest of the season, and closing out the top five was Agustin Canapino.
Pourchaire had an unfortunate end to the morning session as he crashed his #6 Arrow McLaren Chevy into the tire barriers, causing damage to his front wing.
There was only one interruption during the session for Pourchaire, but several drivers misjudged one of the few challenging braking zones on the track.
Most were able to recover and continue, but some needed assistance from the AMR safety team to restart their engines.
The race control decided to implement local yellow flags for all these incidents, ensuring the session continued without interruptions.
Teams now have a short period of time to make final adjustments and prepare their cars for a qualifying session, scheduled for 12:15 PM Eastern Time.
