Alex Lloyd made light of his scant IndyCar Series experience to top the second day of testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as this year's rookie crop completed their exclusive period of running.
Reigning Indy Pro Series champion Lloyd took the #16 Rahal Letterman with Chip Ganassi Dallara-Honda to a lap of 40.3528secs, shaving four tenths off Will Power's opening day mark around the historic 2.5-mile oval.
“It was a good day really," the Briton confirmed, "We didn't get too much running in really, just one run early in the morning, then we had a couple of problems that set us back a couple of hours. But we got a good run in in the end, and I was able to gradually take a little bit of downforce out of the car, which is the key.
"I've been doing that nice and gently over the last couple of days. It's obviously my first time in an IndyCar on an oval, so we're going to be giving the track a lot of respect and taking our time with it. We're just improving the balance of it and going through it during the day and getting up to speed and feeling very comfortable with it. I think the guys have given me a good car and it's good for me, having Chip Ganassi and [Bobby] Rahal together working with me.
"So far, it's gone very smoothly, but we've got everyone out tomorrow, and it's going to be nice to see what sort of speeds they're doing, see where we are and what we need to improve on and keep working.”
While Lloyd stole the headlines, Enrique Bernoldi became the eleventh driver to pass the mandatory rookie orientation programme on the second and final day devoted to newcomers. Fellow rookies Mario Dominguez and Mario Moraes completed three of the four phases and may complete the final phase later in the month.
“I progressed a lot, and it was actually much nicer than yesterday, speed-wise," Bernoldi commented, "Today, I could go flat out more and was able to do more laps, while we started to take out some downforce and work on the set-up of the car. I improved over three miles per hour today, so it has been a very positive day for us."
![IPS champion Alex Lloyd was fastest on day two of Indianapolis 500 practice [pic credit: IRL/Garrett]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/436304.jpg)
