Yesterday’s pacesetter McLaughlin wasted no time in flirting with the 1m06-second barrier, getting down to a 1m07.0036s on his third lap and then broke through it with a 1m06.7282s on his fifth lap.
With 36 minutes to go, his nearest challenger became team-mate Newgarden, just 0.0053s behind, but Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal were an encouraging third and sixth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
Lundgaard proved that RLL’s strong showing was no fluke by bouncing back into third as the times tumbled, just 0.04s off McLaughlin’s benchmark, while Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing jumped into sixth until he was bumped down by Long Beach winner of Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Autosport and another Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist.
