IndyCar Detroit: Herta tops FP2 as Ferrucci and Kirkwood clash

The California native rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with a 1m01.5726s around the tight and twisty 1.645-mile, nine-turn temporary street circuit based in the heart of Motor City.

“Thankfully, I got one and it ended up being perfect and the tires were in the right temperature window,” said Herta.

“I mean, you have to take the practice results with a grain of salt because there are guys that are really fast that just get screwed and don't get laps. But luckily we were one of the lucky ones that got a lap.

“Hopefully, we can carry that over to qualifying.”

Herta nailed his quick lap after 22 minutes to set the best mark of the session. His team-mate, Kyle Kirkwood, ended up 0.1655s behind to claim second and give Andretti a 1-2 at session’s end.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou was third, ahead of Arrow McLaren’s rookie Theo Pourchaire impressing to fourth before he crashed hard late on.

Agustin Canapino put his Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet fifth, with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in sixth.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was seventh, ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon.

Josef Newgarden, the recently crowned two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, put his Team Penske Chevrolet in 10th.

The 45-minute session started off sour for Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, who was sidelined for the initial 15 minutes with an electrical issue. He ended up 13th by the end.

Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global Honda (Photo by: Josh Tons / Motorsport Images)

Kirkwood flexed the early pace by going top of the timesheets with a 1m02.9167s flying lap before being bumped by Canapino just over 12 minutes into the morning’s practice with a lap of 1m02.7724s.

Lundgaard also rotated to first temporarily before Palou replaced him with a quick lap of 1m02.2841s, and then went even faster with a 1m02.0119s run the following lap after 20 minutes.

Several drivers were found getting caught in various runoff areas, including two-time and reigning IndyCar Series champion Palou.

Dixon was among them, ending up stalled in Turn 1 in the opening seven minutes. Helio Castroneves, who is replacing rookie Tom Blomqvist for this weekend (and next), also had an off in Turn 8, which happened in avoidance of rear ending Canapino in the first 10 minutes.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Sting Ray Robb also ended up stranded in Turn 3, along with Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay in Turn 8, which also caught out the likes of Pourchaire, among others.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci and Herta had a close moment in the last 12 minutes. Herta approached Ferrucci in the Turns 6-7 complex and lightly touched wheels before the former was able to pull off an inside pass in Turn 8 as Ferrucci dove to pit lane.

Herta improved his time in the final six minutes, hitting a 1m015726s flying lap, with Kirkwood also improving with a run at 1m01.7381s to go second.

Pourchaire’s ability to test the limits showed signs of paying off after going fourth in the last handful of minutes with a 1m01.9429s lap. However, the Frenchman also pushed too hard and brought out the session’s only red flag with just over a minute left to go after going off into the barrier in Turn 9.

The end of the session saw Ferrucci and Kirkwood have an exchange on pit lane, with the former claiming Kirkwood turned into him following an on-track altercation.

Ferrucci was seen shoving Kirkwood, with the Peacock audio picking up Ferrucci saying, “You f***ing piece of sh**, you turned into me!”

Kirkwood stopped attempting to talk to Ferrucci, walking off and smiling back to his timing stand.

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	26	25	1'01.5726		96.179
2	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27	25	+0.1655 1'01.7381	0.1655	95.921
3	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	23	+0.3256 1'01.8982	0.1601	95.673
4	T. Pourchaire Arrow McLaren	6	23	+0.3703 1'01.9429	0.0447	95.604
5	A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78	23	+0.5308 1'02.1034	0.1605	95.357
6	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	27	+0.5394 1'02.1120	0.0086	95.344
7	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	29	+0.5426 1'02.1152	0.0032	95.339
8	W. Power Team Penske	12	28	+0.6314 1'02.2040	0.0888	95.203
9	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	29	+0.7771 1'02.3497	0.1457	94.980
10	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	24	+0.8514 1'02.4240	0.0743	94.867
11	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	26	+0.8943 1'02.4669	0.0429	94.802
12	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	25	+0.9042 1'02.4768	0.0099	94.787
13	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28	18	+0.9134 1'02.4860	0.0092	94.773
14	R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	26	+0.9574 1'02.5300	0.0440	94.707
15	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	27	+0.9619 1'02.5345	0.0045	94.700
16	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	23	+1.0384 1'02.6110	0.0765	94.584
17	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	25	+1.2615 1'02.8341	0.2231	94.248
18	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	20	23	+1.3601 1'02.9327	0.0986	94.101
19	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	24	+1.4484 1'03.0210	0.0883	93.969
20	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	24	+1.6193 1'03.1919	0.1709	93.715
21	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	29	+1.6399 1'03.2125	0.0206	93.684
22	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	4	26	+1.7165 1'03.2891	0.0766	93.571
23	R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41	22	+1.7659 1'03.3385	0.0494	93.498
24	L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing	8	26	+1.8297 1'03.4023	0.0638	93.404
25	H. Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing	66	19	+1.9628 1'03.5354	0.1331	93.208
26	T. Vautier Dale Coyne Racing	51	29	+2.0116 1'03.5842	0.0488	93.136
27	J. Harvey Dale Coyne Racing	18	26	+2.1987 1'03.7713	0.1871	92.863
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