IndyCar Mid-Ohio: Herta grabs pole for Race 2, Ferrucci second

The start of qualifying was delayed by 30mins as low-hanging cloud had slowed the arrival of the medical helicopter. Heavy rain earlier in the morning obliged drivers in Group 1 to head out on rain tires, slithering around on the treacherous blend of wet asphalt and leaking sealant.

Takuma Sato, Alex Palou, and the Andretti Autosport-Hondas of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi all suffered spins. But it was Charlie Kimball that brought out the first red flag with a spin and stall exiting Turn 1 in his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy. At that point, Simon Pagenaud had put his Team Penske-Chevy on top, ahead of Santino Ferrucci’s Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan-Honda, Rossi, Oliver Askew of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy.

But Pagenaud ran off the road at the penultimate corner, allowing Ferrucci and Hunter-Reay ahead on the track, and ahead on the timing screens. Palou in the Coyne with Team Goh sister car to Ferrucci moved up to second but then pitted while Ferrucci carried on chiseling away at his time, eventually winding up 3.24sec faster than Palou.

Pagenaud later recovered to edge Hunter-Reay and Rossi for third.

Group 2 began with Power trying to pass Josef Newgarden at Turn 2 to get a clear track ahead, but with the champion hanging on around the outside, yesterday’s winner was obliged to exit the corner on the slippery line and lost the rear. Looping to the outside, he got beached on the curb and that brought out the reds. Zach Veach joined him on the inside of the track, while further around the lap, Jack Harvey spun and went off at Turn 12, making solid rear end contact with the tire wall. None of the three would be allowed further participation in the session, although for Harvey that was a moot point.

Marco Andretti elected to restart the session on slicks but the session went red again almost immediately as Pato O’Ward spun and beached his Arrow McLaren SP #5 in the sandtrap at Turn 2.

Andretti ran out of track time for his tactics to work, however, as there was still so much dampness in Turn 11 and he fell 1.2sec off the ultimate pace.

That was set by Herta who scored his third IndyCar pole with a 1min26.279sec lap, 0.8sec ahead of the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas of Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist. Andretti was fourth, fast enough to bump Newgarden down to fifth, and therefore a P9 start.

The second round of the Honda Indy 200 is set to begin at 1pm local (Eastern) time.

GROUP 1

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	1'27.468		92.934
2	Alex Palou	Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh	1'30.710	3.241	89.612
3	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'31.735	4.267	88.611
4	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'31.909	4.440	88.443
5	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'32.701	5.232	87.688
6	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'33.162	5.693	87.254
7	Oliver Askew	Arrow McLaren SP	1'33.468	5.999	86.969
8	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'34.334	6.865	86.170
9	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'35.027	7.558	85.542
10	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'35.078	7.609	85.496
11	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'39.809	12.340	81.443
12	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
View full results

GROUP 2

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport	1'26.278		94.215
2	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'27.099	0.820	93.328
3	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'27.141	0.862	93.283
4	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani	1'27.460	1.182	92.942
5	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'28.417	2.138	91.937
6	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'29.035	2.756	91.298
7	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1'29.235	2.956	91.094
8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'30.265	3.986	90.055
9	Will Power	Team Penske
10	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing
11	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP
View full results