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Charles Bradley

IndyCar Mid-Ohio: Power leads, Pagenaud escapes massive high-speed crash

Power topped the 45-minute session around the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course with a best lap of 1m06.4905s.

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta set the early pace at 1m07.7772s before a red flag for Pagenaud’s huge somersault at Turn 4, the Frenchman immediately radioing-in to report that he’d suffered a complete brake failure.

His Meyer Shank Racing car was launched over the grass verge at the end of the 180mph straight and landed in the gravel trap, which is nicknamed ‘China Beach’ and situated on a downslope due to the topography of the track.

Pagenaud barrel-rolled violently six and a half times before bouncing off the tyre wall, and all four corners of his car were damaged. The AMR safety crew rushed to his aid across the giant gravel trap, his car having come to rest on its side but at an angle he couldn’t climb out from unassisted.

After releasing him from the car, he took a moment to sit on the gravel before getting to his feet. He took another moment to crouch down before being led to the medical car by the series’ doctor.

Although the cause was very different, the outcome was very similar to Michael Andretti’s incredible crash here in the 1998 race from which he also walked away.

 

The session restarted with 26 cars on the tight and twisty track, making it almost impossible to get a clear lap early on.

Romain Grosjean (Andretti Autosport) had a near miss when he caught the train of cars that were coasting to get a gap, just swerving around Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino.

Once the field began to pit, some proper running became available, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal leading the way with 1m06.884s from David Malukas, who’s stated he won’t be back with Dale Coyne Racing next year – fuelling speculation that he’s heading to Chip Ganassi Racing next season.

Friday pacesetter Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) then took over the top spot with 1m06.7947s, ahead of Ganassi’s Scott Dixon – who’d recovered from an earlier spin at Turn 5.

Herta returned to P1 with 1m06.7791s before Power beat that with 1m06.4905s, a quarter of a second ahead of Alex Palou (Ganassi).

Herta stayed third, ahead of O’Ward, Dixon, Scott McLaughlin (Penske), Rahal and Malukas.

Santino Ferrucci caused a second red flag when he nosed his AJ Foyt Racing entry into the tyre wall at Turn 12.

Qualifying starts at 2:45pm local time.

IndyCar Mid-Ohio FP2 results

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval
1 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 1'06.4905    
2 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'06.7411 0.2506 0.2506
3 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 1'06.7791 0.2886 0.0380
4 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 1'06.7947 0.3042 0.0156
5 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'06.8289 0.3384 0.0342
6 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 1'06.8700 0.3795 0.0411
7 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'06.8884 0.3979 0.0184
8 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 1'06.8896 0.3991 0.0012
9 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 1'06.8966 0.4061 0.0070
10 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 1'06.9686 0.4781 0.0720
11 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'07.0138 0.5233 0.0452
12 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 1'07.0799 0.5894 0.0661
13 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 1'07.1032 0.6127 0.0233
14 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'07.1220 0.6315 0.0188
15 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'07.1287 0.6382 0.0067
16 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 1'07.1515 0.6610 0.0228
17 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 1'07.2146 0.7241 0.0631
18 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 1'07.2580 0.7675 0.0434
19 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 1'07.2584 0.7679 0.0004
20 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay United States Ed Carpenter Racing 1'07.3918 0.9013 0.1334
21 United States Santino Ferrucci United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'07.4848 0.9943 0.0930
22 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'07.6197 1.1292 0.1349
23 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 1'07.7287 1.2382 0.1090
24 Argentina Agustin Canapino United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 1'07.8411 1.3506 0.1124
25 Ray Robb United States Dale Coyne Racing 1'08.0188 1.5283 0.1777
26 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'08.8344 2.3439 0.8156
27 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 1'10.6735 4.1830 1.8391
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