Ryan Hunter-Reay breaks through in afternoon practice at Laguna Seca

Ryan Hunter-Reay dropped a late flyer lap on red tyres to pace this afternoon’s practice session for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Andretti Autosport driver bolted on a fresh set of reds and logged the quickest lap of the weekend of 1 minute 9.9105 seconds – nearly one second quicker than Colton Herta’s time set this morning.

Hunter-Reay is one of four drivers that have competed in an Indy car at the 2.238-mile road course in Northern Calfornia. The other drivers with prior IndyCar experience here are Sebastien Bourdais, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon.

Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist placed the second quickest time of the session at 1:09.9305s, which upstaged his rookie rival Colton Herta by a slim .001 of a second. The top three were the only drivers clocked under the 70-second mark.

Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud once again was the fastest of the championship quartet as he placed the fourth-fastest time at 1:10.1353. Points leader Josef Newgarden was also among the front runners as he ended the day sixth on the timesheets at 1:10.2248.

Sandwiched between the Penske duo was Dale Coyne Racing rookie Santino Ferrucci in fifth at 1:10.2066 seconds after ending up third this morning.

Scott Dixon improved from his mid-pack run this morning to place himself as the seventh quickest driver of the session. Rounding out the top ten was Will Power, Marcus Ericsson and Charlie Kimball.

Alexander Rossi had another gloomy session as he completed 13 laps but only mustered the 23rd quickest time.