“Huge” grip levels at Long Beach despite heat, say aces

Simon Pagenaud’s fastest time in the Meyer Shank Racing-Honda in first practice was over two seconds faster than Colton Herta’s quickest time in the opening session of last year’s GP Long Beach – held in the fall – despite today’s temperatures hovering around the 100degF mark.

Fellow former Long Beach winner Rossi, a semi-teammate on the Andretti Autosport-Honda side, was 0.4sec slower but that was still enough to grab P2.