Mid-Ohio IndyCar: Newgarden beats Herta to pole
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden took his third IndyCar pole of the season with a mighty effort, beating Andretti Autosport's Colton Herta with his final lap.
Newgarden made it through to the Fast Six final stage of qualifying and lapped the 2.238-mile Mid-Ohio course in 66.673 seconds at an average speed of 121.919mph, to shade Herta by just 0.031s.
These two appeared to be in a league of their own, as Will Power slipped up on what should have been his best lap in the Fast Six, so that his ‘banker’ lap ended up as his fastest.
That allowed Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing to edge ahead of him and into third place.
Ericsson’s team-mate Scott Dixon, a six-time Mid-Ohio winner, finished sixth, ahead of the second fastest Andretti Autosport cars of Alexander Rossi.
Alex Palou, Marcus Ericssson and Scott Dixon all took their Chip Ganassi Racing cars out straight away on scrubbed reds at the start of Q2 and each took turns at the top before pitting for fresh reds, as did the cars who laid down their banker laps using Firestone’s harder primaries.
Sebastien Bourdais incurred a drive-through penalty for exceeding the pitlane speed limit in the AJ Foyt Racing which ruined his chances.
Newgarden, Herta, Power and Rossi were the class of the field, covered by a single-tenth of a second, while a late surge from Dixon and Ericsson knocked their championship leading team-mate Palou out of the top six.
Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport Honda
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Graham Rahal beat two of the Andretti Autosport cars that had moved on from Group 2, but he still didn’t quite advance to the shootout for pole, and will roll off from eighth on the grid.
He'll head James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay, with Rinus Veekay - who returns from injury - and Bourdais completing the top 12.
Scott McLaughlin missed out on graduating to Q2 by 0.063s, while Romain Grosjean also failed to advance, but the shocker was this morning’s practice leader Pato O’Ward dropping out.
Jack Harvey stopped his Meyer Shank Racing car just beyond the chequered flag at the end of the opening qualifying session, and while Alexander Rossi responded by burping the throttle a little and winding up eighth, Simon Pagenaud apparently didn’t and bumped his way into third.
Rob Edwards, Rossi’s strategist then argued the case with Race Control that Rossi should be in, because not only should Harvey be penalised for causing the yellow, Pagenaud should lose his best time for not slowing.
In fact, IndyCar did penalise Harvey, Pagenaud and Rossi, all losing their best times – but Rossi’s second best time was enough to get him through in sixth.
Mid-Ohio IndyCar - Fast Six results
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 4 | 1'06.673 | |
| 2 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 4 | 1'06.677 | 0.003 |
| 3 |  Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 3 | 1'07.072 | 0.398 |
| 4 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 4 | 1'07.116 | 0.442 |
| 5 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 4 | 1'07.135 | 0.461 |
| 6 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 4 | 1'07.218 | 0.544 |
| View full results | |||||
Q2
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 7 | 1'06.163 | |
| 2 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.203 | 0.040 |
| 3 | Will Power | Team Penske | 7 | 1'06.238 | 0.075 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.245 | 0.082 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 6 | 1'06.277 | 0.114 |
| 6 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 7 | 1'06.449 | 0.286 |
| 7 |  Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 7 | 1'06.488 | 0.325 |
| 8 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 7 | 1'06.594 | 0.431 |
| 9 |  James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.613 | 0.450 |
| 10 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.751 | 0.588 |
| 11 |  Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 7 | 1'06.767 | 0.604 |
| 12 |  Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 6 | 1'06.923 | 0.760 |
| View full results | |||||
Q1 G2
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.268 | |
| 2 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 7 | 1'06.323 | 0.054 |
| 3 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 7 | 1'06.458 | 0.190 |
| 4 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.596 | 0.327 |
| 5 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.715 | 0.447 |
| 6 | Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 7 | 1'06.725 | 0.456 |
| 7 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 7 | 1'06.731 | 0.462 |
| 8 |  Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | 6 | 1'06.788 | 0.519 |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing | 7 | 1'06.864 | 0.595 |
| 10 |  Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 7 | 1'06.867 | 0.599 |
| 11 | Santino Ferrucci | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 6 | 1'06.925 | 0.656 |
| 12 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 7 | 1'07.070 | 0.801 |
| 13 | Ryan Norman | Dale Coyne Racing | 7 | 1'07.471 | 1.202 |
| View full results | |||||
Q1 G1
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 7 | 1'06.016 | |
| 2 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 7 | 1'06.513 | 0.496 |
| 3 | Will Power | Team Penske | 4 | 1'06.542 | 0.525 |
| 4 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 7 | 1'06.560 | 0.543 |
| 5 | Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 7 | 1'06.611 | 0.594 |
| 6 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 7 | 1'06.645 | 0.628 |
| 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 6 | 1'06.789 | 0.773 |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 8 | 1'06.843 | 0.826 |
| 9 |  Max Chilton | Carlin | 7 | 1'06.847 | 0.830 |
| 10 |  Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 7 | 1'07.095 | 1.078 |
| 11 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 7 | 1'07.586 | 1.569 |
| 12 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 7 | 1'07.674 | 1.657 |
| 13 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 7 | 1'08.407 | 2.390 |
| View full results | |||||
Related video
Previous article
Calderon lands IndyCar test chance with AJ Foyt Racing
Next article
IndyCar Mid-Ohio: Newgarden ends unlucky run with narrow victory over Ericsson
Indy500: Starting grid
IndyCar: Colton Herta takes victory at St. Pete
Barber IndyCar: Lap 1 Crash
Barber IndyCar: Palou wins at Birmingham
The F1 champion who became an Indy king in his second career
Emerson Fittipaldi’s decision to go racing with his brother led to him falling out of F1, but he bloomed again on the IndyCar scene. NIGEL ROEBUCK considers a career of two halves
The lasting legacy of a fallen Indycar rookie
Jeff Krosnoff was plucked out of obscurity to become a respected and highly popular professional in Japan, and then got his big break in Indycar for 1996. But a tragic accident at Toronto 25 years ago cut short a promising career and curtailed his regular team-mate Mauro Martini's passion for racing
The two key areas where Dixon needs to re-assert his authority
OPINION: Having been Chip Ganassi Racing's IndyCar focal point for the best part of a decade, Scott Dixon has been so far outgunned by new team-mate Alex Palou in 2021. After finishing behind the Spaniard at his traditional happy hunting ground at Mid-Ohio, Dixon has work to do to assume his traditional position in the team and the standings
The winners and losers of IndyCar 2021 so far
At the halfway point in the 2021 IndyCar Series season, we've had seven winners in eight races, spread between five teams – none of them Team Penske. In this unusual season, even by IndyCar standards, who’s excelling and who’s dragging their heels?
Castroneves: How I kept it under control to make Indy 500 history
Helio Castroneves’ overwhelming vivaciousness outside the cockpit belies a hardcore racer who knows how to plot his moves – and then recall it all. A day after his fourth Indy 500 win, he explained his tactics
How 'chess master' Castroneves cemented his Indy legend status
Helio Castroneves joined AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears with the most Indianapolis 500 wins after edging past Alex Palou on the penultimate lap of a thrilling race that validated Michael Shank's faith in the veteran Brazilian - who is discovering that there is life after Penske after all
Indy 500 preview: Will experience or youth be victorious at the Brickyard?
A quarter of the drivers racing in the 105th edition of the Indianapolis 500 are former winners - but are they the favourites? The veteran drivers largely impressed in qualifying - but there's also a plethora of young guns looking to secure victory at IndyCar's flagship race...
What will it take to get American drivers in Formula 1?
The FIA says it wants American drivers in Formula 1, but would it take an IndyCar driver to transfer or does an American need to join the European junior ladder system to get there?
