IndyCar: Pagenaud and Honda top second Houston Grand Prix practice

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Simon Pagenaud held the upper hand by half a second in Friday's second practice session, that was halted early by a red flag for a hard hit by Jack Hawksworth.

Pagenaud, winner of the inaugural Indianapolis Grand Prix, laid down a lap of 1:00.41 in the Vaspar Dallara-Honda and was five-tenths clear of second quick Ryan Briscoe's 1:00.642 in the NTT Data Dallara-Chevrolet.
But the story of the day was Luca Filippi.

After making an impressive IndyCar debut in 2013 for Bryan Herta, Filippi is teaming with Graham Rahal in the Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan stable this weekend. After 90 minutes of practice, the Italian was third fastest at 1:00.67 in the other National Guard Dallara-Honda.

Helio Castroneves, back in the bright yellow Pennzoil colors, clocked the fourth fastest lap of 1:00.690 in his Team Penske Dallara-Chevy on the rough street circuit around Reliant Stadium. And rookie Mikhail Aleshin continued to impress with the fifth best time of 1:00.703 in the Sam Schmidt Dallara-Honda.

Hawksworth got airborne exiting the Turn 2 chicane and slammed into the wall in Herta's Dallara-Honda, destroying the left-front suspension with five minutes remaining.

Will Power, who set quick time in the morning session, was ninth in the afternoon while Long Beach winner Mike Conway was slowest of the 23 drivers.