IndyCar Mid-Ohio: Power claims 60th pole for Race 1
Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power claimed his third pole of the season, his fifth at Mid-Ohio and the 60th of his career when unusually Group 1 proved the faster.
Pole sitter Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Traditionally, the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio course gets ever quicker as more rubber goes down rapidly but Power’s top time from Group 1 – 66.334sec lap at 122.543mph – beat Group 2 pacesetter Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport-Honda by over 0.3sec.
Power had already guaranteed himself a front-row start by beating teammate Josef Newgarden by a little over 0.2sec, with Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda an almost identical gap behind.
Felix Rosenqvist headed up Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s challenge, as championship leader and six-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon was only ninth, complaining of no rear grip on the softer-compound red Firestones.
Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet narrowly grabbed a fifth-row spot just ahead of Marco Andretti.
In Group 2, Hunter-Reay clocked a 66.729sec lap just 0.1474sec faster than the highly impressive Conor Daly of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.
Alexander Rossi, after his various troubles this year that have left him a desultory 18th in the championship, could be relatively pleased with third in session and sixth on the grid, but the 2018 Mid-Ohio winner will have been perturbed to find himself 0.45sec off Hunter-Reay’s pace.
Local hero Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda was fourth fastest in Group 2, beating Champ Car Atlantic rival Simon Pagenaud by three-hundredths of a second, while Max Chilton did a great job to land a mid-grid slot for Carlin-Chevy.
Race 1 is set to get the green flag at 5pm local (Eastern) time.
GROUP 1
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Tire |
Team |
1 |
Will Power |
1:06.334 |
--.---- |
9 |
9 |
122.543 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
2 |
Josef Newgarden |
1:06.551 |
0.2165 |
9 |
9 |
122.144 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
3 |
Jack Harvey |
1:06.769 |
0.4347 |
8 |
8 |
121.745 |
Honda |
A |
Meyer Shank Racing |
4 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
1:06.784 |
0.4498 |
8 |
9 |
121.718 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
5 |
Rinus VeeKay |
1:07.011 |
0.6767 |
8 |
8 |
121.305 |
Chevy |
A |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
6 |
Marco Andretti |
1:07.016 |
0.6819 |
8 |
8 |
121.296 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian |
7 |
Colton Herta |
1:07.021 |
0.6869 |
8 |
8 |
121.287 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport |
8 |
Pato O'Ward |
1:07.035 |
0.7011 |
9 |
9 |
121.261 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren SP |
9 |
Scott Dixon |
1:07.141 |
0.8063 |
6 |
8 |
121.071 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
10 |
Zach Veach |
1:07.210 |
0.8758 |
8 |
8 |
120.946 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
11 |
Marcus Ericsson |
1:07.389 |
1.0547 |
9 |
9 |
120.625 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
GROUP 2
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Tire |
Team |
1 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay |
1:06.729 |
--.---- |
8 |
8 |
121.819 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
2 |
Conor Daly |
1:06.876 |
0.1474 |
8 |
8 |
121.550 |
Chevy |
A |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
3 |
Alexander Rossi |
1:07.186 |
0.4569 |
8 |
8 |
120.990 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
4 |
Graham Rahal |
1:07.220 |
0.4918 |
8 |
8 |
120.927 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
5 |
Simon Pagenaud |
1:07.249 |
0.5202 |
8 |
8 |
120.876 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
6 |
Max Chilton |
1:07.449 |
0.7204 |
8 |
8 |
120.518 |
Chevy |
P |
Carlin |
7 |
Santino Ferrucci |
1:07.501 |
0.7724 |
8 |
8 |
120.425 |
Honda |
A |
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan |
8 |
Oliver Askew |
1:07.621 |
0.8924 |
8 |
8 |
120.211 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren SP |
9 |
Takuma Sato |
1:07.819 |
1.0905 |
8 |
8 |
119.860 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
10 |
Alex Palou |
1:08.155 |
1.4261 |
7 |
7 |
119.270 |
Honda |
A |
Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh |
11 |
Charlie Kimball |
1:08.378 |
1.6496 |
8 |
8 |
118.880 |
Chevy |
A |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
12 |
Dalton Kellett |
1:08.544 |
1.8155 |
7 |
7 |
118.592 |
Chevy |
A |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
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