Tristan Vautier topped the times in the second practice session for this weekend’s IndyCar race around the streets of Baltimore.

The Schmidt rookie went to the top midway through the session with a 1m19.4792s effort and the time stood right up until Will Power brought things to an end with a trip into the Turn 9 tires with a few seconds remaining on the clock.

A string of interruptions prevented some drivers from being able to run a final set of new tires, with Justin Wilson bringing out the reds with a spin at Turn 3, and an earlier stoppage being called after contact in the chicane left a chunk of Oriol Servia’s wing on the track.

Graham Rahal, who had earlier led times, finished up second-fastest for Rahal Letterman Lanigan with a lap 0.08sec slower than Vautier’s, with Josef Newgarden another early leader third quickest in the Sarah Fisher Hartman car.

Most of the action during the afternoon took place around the chicane, where James Hinchcliffe was lucky to escape damage after clipping the tire stack hard on the entry. Shortly afterward, Sebastian Saavedra did it properly, bouncing off the tires in the middle of the chicane and then hitting the tire stack at the exit head-on, forcing the Colombian into the pits for a new front wing.

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Time        Gap 1.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    1m19.4792s 2.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      1m19.5630s  +0.0838s 3.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     1m19.6662s  +0.1870s 4.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    1m19.7027s  +0.2235s 5.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    1m19.8509s  +0.3717s 6.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     1m19.8756s  +0.3964s 7.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         1m20.0593s  +0.5801s 8.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda       1m20.0934s  +0.6142s 9.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     1m20.1604s  +0.6812s10.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda    1m20.1976s  +0.7184s11.  Luca Filippi         Herta/Honda      1m20.2042s  +0.7250s12.  Oriol Servia         Panther/Chevy    1m20.3953s  +0.9161s13.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     1m20.4774s  +0.9982s14.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   1m20.5546s  +1.0754s15.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy   1m20.6001s  +1.1209s16.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   1m20.6077s  +1.1285s17.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda      1m20.7808s  +1.3016s18.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     1m20.8272s  +1.3480s19.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    1m20.8984s  +1.4192s20.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      1m20.9139s  +1.4347s21.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   1m21.0618s  +1.5826s22.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         1m21.7958s  +2.3166s23.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  1m22.4532s  +2.9740s24.  Stefan Wilson        Coyne/Honda      1m23.6238s  +4.1446sAll drivers use Dallara DW12 chassis