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David Malsher-Lopez

Mid-Ohio IndyCar: Herta leads Power in second practice

Devlin DeFrancesco caused a red flag in the opening minutes of the session with an off-course excursion.

Ten drivers had set 68sec laps by the time Alexander Rossi sent his Andretti Autosport-Honda to the top with a 67.8725sec lap, swiftly replaced in P1 by Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.

However, the Swede was then replaced at the top by teammate Pato O’Ward, then Romain Grosjean (Andretti), Will Power (Team Penske-Chevrolet) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet). VeeKay’s best effort, which edged Power by 0.0051sec and O’Ward by 0.0574sec, was a 67.1965sec (120.971mph) around the 2.238-mile course.

With under 30mins to go, the two Kiwis flew into the top five, Scott McLaughlin’s Penske ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Mid-Ohio legend, Scott Dixon, but soon after came the second red flag, caused by an off for Dalton Kellett of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet.

Then Josef Newgarden, yesterday’s pacesetter and the 2021 Mid-Ohio winner, went fastest with a 67.0614, just ahead of increasingly impressive rookie David Malukas in the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda.

Colton Herta then put in a 67.0275sec in his Andretti Autosport-Honda, and Will Power had just responded with a slightly slower (by 0.0034sec) lap when he skated off at Turn 4, bringing out the third red flag of the session. The evolution of the track was such that Herta and Power on primaries had set faster times than Newgarden’s best effort on the soft compound Firestone’s in yesterday’s first practice session.

Behind Newgarden and Malukas, defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou was fifth ahead of VeeKay, with Pato O’Ward seventh ahead of McLaughlin, Dixon and Rossi.

Championship leader Marcus Ericsson had a wild 360-degree spin on the grass, yet was able to return to the Ganassi #8 pits without obvious damage, but finished the session in 15th.

Paretta Autosport’s Simona De Silvestro was 24th, 1.94sec off the ultimate pace, 1.6sec and 1.8sec adrift of Ed Carpenter Racing semi-teammates Conor Daly and VeeKay respectively.

Qualifying begins at 2.45pm local (Eastern) time.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 23 1'07.0275   121.276
2 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 22 1'07.0309 0.0034 121.269
3 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 22 1'07.0614 0.0339 121.214
4 United States David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 19 1'07.0978 0.0703 121.149
5 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 24 1'07.1521 0.1246 121.051
6 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 21 1'07.1965 0.1690 120.971
7 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 26 1'07.2539 0.2264 120.867
8 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 22 1'07.3353 0.3078 120.721
9 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 26 1'07.3811 0.3536 120.639
10 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 25 1'07.3849 0.3574 120.632
11 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 20 1'07.3890 0.3615 120.625
12 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 26 1'07.4062 0.3787 120.594
13 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20 1'07.4819 0.4544 120.459
14 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 24 1'07.5118 0.4843 120.406
15 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 20 1'07.5211 0.4936 120.389
16 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 24 1'07.6387 0.6112 120.180
17 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 22 1'07.7773 0.7498 119.934
18 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 25 1'07.7894 0.7619 119.913
19 United Kingdom Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing 23 1'07.8178 0.7903 119.862
20 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 24 1'07.9389 0.9114 119.649
21 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 21 1'08.1605 1.1330 119.260
22 Japan Takuma Sato United States Dale Coyne Racing 20 1'08.3601 1.3326 118.911
23 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 17 1'08.8449 1.8174 118.074
24 Switzerland Simona de Silvestro Paretta Autosport 20 1'08.9685 1.9410 117.863
25 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 22 1'08.9760 1.9485 117.850
26 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 13 1'09.2435 2.2160 117.394
27 Colombia Tatiana Calderon United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20 1'09.2613 2.2338 117.364
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