IndyCar: O’Ward tops opening practice at Mid-Ohio
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Arrow McLaren Chevy driver Pato O’Ward turned a lap of 1m06.4935s to lead opening practice for the Honda Indy 200 IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio.
“A good start here at Mid-Ohio,” O’Ward said after the session. “We made some good changes to the car and ended up the practice in a really nice spot. Looking forward to tomorrow.”
“It will be interesting to see if the rain decides to make an appearance or not,” said O’Ward, referencing local forecasts. “But yeah, so far so good (for us).”
The hottest man on the circuit right now, Alex Palou, was 2nd quick in the #10 Chip Ganassi Honda, 0.36s back.
Palou’s Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson was 3rd quick, 0.48s back.
RLL’s Christian Lundgaard, who led most of the session in his #45 Honda, had to settle for 4th while Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top-5 for Andretti Autosport.
Practice 1 Results
| Pos | No | Name | Time | Behind | Gap | FL | Laps | Speed | Engine | Team |
| 1 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | 1:06.4935 | 0.000s | 0.000s | 19 | 25 | 122.250 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren |
| 2 | 10 | Alex Palou | 1:06.8558 | 0.3623 | 0.3623 | 20 | 23 | 121.587 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 3 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | 1:06.9779 | 0.4844 | 0.1221 | 20 | 24 | 121.365 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 4 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:07.0262 | 0.5327 | 0.0483 | 25 | 27 | 121.278 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 5 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | 1:07.0269 | 0.5334 | 0.0007 | 17 | 21 | 121.277 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 6 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | 1:07.1175 | 0.6240 | 0.0906 | 20 | 22 | 121.113 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 7 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 1:07.1401 | 0.6466 | 0.0226 | 25 | 30 | 121.072 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 8 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 1:07.1531 | 0.6596 | 0.0130 | 22 | 24 | 121.049 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 9 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | 1:07.1953 | 0.7018 | 0.0422 | 22 | 25 | 120.973 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren |
| 10 | 26 | Colton Herta | 1:07.2166 | 0.7231 | 0.0213 | 18 | 20 | 120.934 | Honda | Andretti Autosport w/Curb Agajanian |
| 11 | 30 | Jack Harvey | 1:07.2674 | 0.7739 | 0.0508 | 22 | 24 | 120.843 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 12 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 1:07.3206 | 0.8271 | 0.0532 | 16 | 21 | 120.748 | Honda | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 13 | 6 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:07.3249 | 0.8314 | 0.0043 | 6 | 23 | 120.740 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren |
| 14 | 12 | Will Power | 1:07.3407 | 0.8472 | 0.0158 | 5 | 28 | 120.712 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 15 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:07.4275 | 0.9340 | 0.0868 | 22 | 25 | 120.556 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 16 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | 1:07.4346 | 0.9411 | 0.0071 | 19 | 23 | 120.543 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 17 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:07.4613 | 0.9678 | 0.0267 | 23 | 26 | 120.496 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 18 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | 1:07.5083 | 1.0148 | 0.0470 | 26 | 29 | 120.412 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 19 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 1:07.6082 | 1.1147 | 0.0999 | 22 | 22 | 120.234 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 20 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:07.6215 | 1.1280 | 0.0133 | 18 | 23 | 120.210 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 21 | 20 | Ryan Hunter Reay | 1:07.7272 | 1.2337 | 0.1057 | 22 | 25 | 120.023 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 22 | 77 | Callum Ilott | 1:07.7347 | 1.2412 | 0.0075 | 22 | 23 | 120.009 | Chevy | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 23 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | 1:07.8378 | 1.3443 | 0.1031 | 29 | 32 | 119.827 | Chevy | Juncos Holling Racing |
| 24 | 18 | David Malukas | 1:07.8785 | 1.3850 | 0.0407 | 7 | 10 | 119.755 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
| 25 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | 1:08.0703 | 1.5768 | 0.1918 | 23 | 23 | 119.418 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 26 | 51 | Sting Ray Robb | 1:08.3577 | 1.8642 | 0.2874 | 7 | 26 | 118.916 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
| 27 | 55 | Benjamin Pedersen | 1:08.9832 | 2.4897 | 0.6255 | 18 | 32 | 117.837 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |