Mick Schumacher Delivers Another Promising Performance in the Second Free Practice Session — Two Interruptions During the Qualifying Dress Rehearsal
Two interruptions and qualifying attempts at the end marked the second free practice session of the IndyCar Series at Elkhart Lake. Mick Schumacher (RLL-Honda; 15th) can still hope to advance beyond Q1 for the first time in his IndyCar career.
The German posted the 15th-fastest time in the second practice session at Road America, but unlike some of his rivals, he opted not to use the soft tires. He had also spent most of the previous practice sessions in 15th place.
Schumacher attributes his improved form this weekend primarily to the test he participated in beforehand: “Of course, I’m seeing many of these tracks for the first time (during the race weekend). So the opportunity to come here and test really speeds up the entire process of preparing for the race weekend.”
“These weekends aren’t particularly long, and you have to make the most of every second on the track. I think we made the best of it.” He also said that on Friday, he and the team found a direction for the setup that they needed to refine during the second practice session. Part of that was also helping his teammate Graham Rahal (RLL-Honda; 18th), who has had an extremely difficult weekend so far.
A little Saturday morning landscaping. pic.twitter.com/L5WdiO1u2E
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His other teammate, Louis Foster (RLL-Honda; 25th), fared even worse: His Dallara-Honda came to a stop due to technical issues, triggering one of two red flags during the session. The other was caused by Will Power (Andretti-Honda; 8th), who, in a spectacular spin, left debris on the track in the final corner leading to the finish line, which then had to be cleaned up.
Schumacher finished just behind his fellow rookie Dennis Hauger (Coyne-Honda; 14th), but Caio Collet (Foyt-Chevrolet; 5th) has outshone all the rookies so far, once again delivering a stellar session.
Team Penske also stepped up its game compared to the previous day: Scott McLaughlin and David Malukas took third and fourth place. Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet; 13th) continues to grit his teeth. Although stand-in Felipe Nasr is present, Newgarden intends to see it through as things stand.
The fastest lap was set by Patricio “Pato” O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet; 1st) with a time of 1:44.003 minutes. However, he set this time on soft tires (“Alternates”), which the majority of drivers did not use. Sting Ray Robb (Juncos-Chevrolet; 23rd) was back in action after his crash on Friday.