Simon Pagenaud set the bar high in the second 45-minute practice session for the Detroit Grand Prix with a lap of 1 minute, 17.6502 seconds on the 2.36-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit.

Pagenaud, who earned his first Verizon IndyCar Series victory in Race 2 of the 2013 doubleheader on Belle Isle, was less than two-tenths of a second off the circuit record in its current configuration set by Mike Conway in Race 2 last June.

Conway, who won Race 1 and was the Verizon P1 Award winner for Race 2, was .0647 of a second behind Pagenaud in the No. 20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka car for Ed Carpenter Racing.

"I think it's becoming an interesting track in terms of racing, not just qualifying, but there's some good places for passing -- Turn 3, Turn 7," said Pagenaud, a Frenchman who won May 10 at the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in the No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports car. "It's breathtaking after being two weeks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You really get your hands full. It's certainly hard work. You just push yourself as hard as you can and try to do a good lap."