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IndyCar Mid-Ohio: Herta tops practice running, Newgarden crashes

Colton Herta topped IndyCar practice at Mid-Ohio for Harding Steinbrenner Racing, while championship leader Josef Newgarden crashed

In the second session, Newgarden was lying 11th fastest when he headed out on Firestone red tyres, but when he dropped a wheel off the curb exiting Turn 9, the car spun through 180-degrees and went backwards the tyre wall on the corner exit.

The red flags flew, with Newgarden given a five-minute penalty for causing them, which ended a session that restarted with less than two minutes to go.

That allowed the drivers just one final crack at a setting representative time, but with most cars tripping over each other in the traffic there were no improvements.

Herta's 1m05.729 second lap of the 2.258-mile roadcourse - a 123.671mph lap - therefore held firm in first place.

He ended up over 0.2s ahead of his nearest rivals and was almost 0.3s clear of the fastest of his Andretti team-mates - Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was fifth.

Simon Pagenaud was second fastest for Penske, pipping his team-mate Will Power, who set his fastest time on the primary tyre and was fastest on that harder compound.

Felix Rosenqvist was the top Chip Ganassi Racing driver in fourth, while James Hinchcliffe was again fast in his Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-run car to take sixth.

Matheus Leist's taking seventh for AJ Foyt Racing was a surprise boost for the beleaguered team, as he finished ahead of Jack Harvey.

Alexander Rossi appeared to be struggling with the handling of his car and languished in 13th in FP2, just ahead of his team-mate Zach Veach.

RC Enerson finished the session in 15th for Carlin, just in front of his team-mate Max Chilton.

Enerson, returning to IndyCar for the first time in three years, caused a minor fracas at the end of the session when he barged his way ahead of drivers who were trying to make a gap to try for one last flying effort.

This was put down to him simply not knowing the new-for-2019 rule that means so long as they emerge from the pitlane within 40s of the restart following a late red flag in practice, drivers are guaranteed an out-lap and a flying lap.

In FP1, Scott Dixon topped the order with a time of 1m06.097s for Ganassi.

He ended up 0.148s ahead of Spencer Pigot (Ed Carpenter Racing), who out Pagenaud and Newgarden

FP2 results

Pos Driver Team Gap Laps
1 Colton Herta Harding Racing 1m05.7292s 16
2 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske 0.2021s 15
3 Will Power Team Penske 0.2643s 16
4 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 0.2926s 24
5 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 0.2994s 13
6 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 0.3026s 14
7 Matheus Leist AJ Foyt Enterprises 0.4335s 15
8 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 0.5188s 19
9 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing 0.6199s 15
10 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing 0.7074s 16
11 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 0.8415s 14
12 Marcus Ericsson Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 0.8473s 13
13 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 0.8514s 13
14 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 0.9218s 18
15 R.C. Enerson Carlin 0.9407s 21
16 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1.0103s 16
17 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing 1.0231s 14
18 Max Chilton Carlin 1.0582s 15
19 Tony Kanaan AJ Foyt Enterprises 1.1749s 14
20 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan 1.2244s 15
21 Ed Jones Ed Carpenter Racing 1.2358s 16
22 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta 1.3848s 14
23 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan 1.5463s 15

FP1 results

Pos Driver Team Gap Laps
1 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1m06.0973s 13
2 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing 0.1482s 14
3 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske 0.1692s 16
4 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 0.2091s 15
5 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 0.2638s 14
6 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 0.3521s 14
7 Will Power Team Penske 0.4868s 18
8 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 0.5077s 24
9 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing 0.6422s 13
10 Max Chilton Carlin 0.8391s 16
11 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 0.9387s 13
12 Colton Herta Harding Racing 0.9528s 18
13 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 1.0070s 15
14 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan 1.0499s 14
15 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta 1.1623s 15
16 Ed Jones Ed Carpenter Racing 1.2001s 14
17 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan 1.2311s 13
18 Marcus Ericsson Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 1.2336s 21
19 Matheus Leist AJ Foyt Enterprises 1.2703s 16
20 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing 1.3222s 17
21 R.C. Enerson Carlin 1.5602s 24
22 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 1.7457s 15
23 Tony Kanaan AJ Foyt Enterprises 1.8458s 13


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