IndyCar Mid-Ohio: O’Ward beats Palou by 0.5s after thrilling duel


Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward held off Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to win the first race of the hybrid era in a thriller at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Circuit.

The 25-year-old Mexican came back from a deficit of more than 6 seconds to lead 24 of the 80 laps and take the victory by 0.4993 seconds on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural terrain road course.

It was the second win of the season for O’Ward, who was credited with the victory in St. Petersburg after Josef Newgarden was disqualified in the push-to-pass scandal. It was also the sixth win of O’Ward’s career.

Palou, who started on pole after beating O’Ward by 0.0024s in qualifying, crashed early in the final stint after opening the race with a dominant pace to lead a race-record 53 laps. But a botched second stop cost him crucial time and allowed O’Ward to gain track positions.

Scott McLaughlin took third, well behind O’Ward and Palou on the podium. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson took fourth and fifth, respectively.

Palou continues to hold the championship lead after Mid-Ohio with 329 points. O’Ward moves up to second with 259 points.

The race

The first laps of the hybrid era race began under yellow after Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda stopped on the track in Turn 5 due to an electrical issue that shut down his engine. The six-time Mid-Ohio winner was pushed behind the wall before the green flag waved.

Dixon entered the weekend in third place in the championship standings, 32 points behind leader and teammate Palou.

Palou led the field to the green flag at the alternate start finish line on the backstretch on Lap 3, making a clean start into Turn 4 and opening an early gap on the field.

Buried in the middle of the field after starting 17th, Penske’s Josef Newgarden opted for an early pit stop – putting him on the three-stop strategy – on Lap 12 and switched from the softer alternate tires to a lightly used set of harder primary tires.

By lap 18, Palou was 5.5 seconds ahead of front-row teammate O’Ward, with Malukas and Herta still in tow, third and fourth respectively. Malukas was 12.8 seconds back. Dixon was able to come back from his suspected hybrid issue, albeit more than 20 laps down.

O’Ward made his first pit stop on lap 28, followed by Malukas. Although O’Ward got away clean after changing from primary to alternate tires, Malukas stalled coming out of his pit box, dropping him out of the lead battle.

Palou pitted while leading on the next lap, opting to drop to substitutes and handing the lead to McLaughlin, who pitted on lap 30 and handed the lead back to Palou.

The top five after the first round of pit stops was led by Palou, with O’Ward 5 seconds behind, followed by McLaughlin, Herta and Newgarden.

Newgarden relinquished fifth position to Ericsson after diving for his second pit stop on lap 36, staying on the primaries and returning to the track in 15th.

Palou’s lead began to dwindle as O’Ward closed the gap to 3.5 seconds on lap 45. Although O’Ward came within 0.4 seconds of Palou over the next few laps, he dove into the pit lane on lap 54 and changed to harder primary tires.

Palou then came in on Lap 55 and had a slow exit after receiving a set of shifts as he struggled to get into first gear. O’Ward passed Palou, who continued his momentum on track with a pass on the outside of Turn 1, leaving a trail of kicked up dust that Palou was able to ride through.

After McLaughlin brought his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet into the pits on Lap 56, the lead was handed to O’Ward, who held a 1.6s lead over Palou.

After the second round of pit stops, the top five was led by O’Ward, followed by Palou, McLaughlin, Ericsson and Newgarden. Herta was sixth, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist.

After a brief excursion, Newgarden made his final pit stop on lap 62 and opted for a softer compound. Race control issued him a pit stop penalty after a pit lane speed violation, compounding his difficult weekend.

The battle for the lead began to heat up with 15 laps to go when Palou caught O’Ward’s rear wing. However, the battle widened moments later when Palou got a slight wide after hitting the curb in Turn 13.

O’Ward and Palou remained within 0.5s of each other, with McLaughlin a distant 17s behind with eight laps to go.

Traffic came into play as O’Ward caught backmarkers Agustin Canapino and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson, closing Palou to just 0.3s behind with seven laps to go.

O’Ward still couldn’t get past the backmarkers as the laps went on, but managed to keep Palou behind him to record a hard-earned victory by just under half a second.

IndyCar Mid-Ohio Results

Cla No. Driver Car motor Tours Time Delay
1 5 Patricio O’Ward Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:33’22.6191
2 ten Alex Palou Dallara/Honda 80 1:33’23.1184 0.4993
3 3 Scott McLaughlin Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:33’38.7749 16.1558
4 26 Colton Herta Dallara/Honda 80 1:33’47.4916 24.8725
5 28 Marcus Ericsson Dallara/Honda 80 1:33’54.3000 31.6809
6 7 Alexander Rossi Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:33’54.8634 32.2443
7 45 C. Lundgaard Dallara/Honda 80 1:33’55.1905 32.5714
8 27 Kyle Kirkwood Dallara/Honda 80 1:33’57.8409 35.2218
9 20 C. Rasmussen Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:34’02.9373 40.3182
ten 14 Santino Ferrucci Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:34’09.5275 46.9084
11 12 Will Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:34’11.2737 48.6546
12 66 David Malukas Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’12.0097 49.3906
13 51 Toby Sowery Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’12.5057 49.8866
14 60 Felix Rosenqvist Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’14.4353 51.8162
15 8 Linus Lundqvist Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’16.0985 53.4794
16 41 Sting Ray Robb Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:34’17.3604 54.7413
17 11 Marcus Armstrong Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’18.4590 55.8399
18 15 Graham Rahal Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’21.4872 58.8681
19 21 R. van Kalmthout Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:34’23.0741 1’00.4550
20 6 Nolan Siegel Dallara/Chevrolet 80 1:34’28.4782 1’05.8591
21 4 Kyffin Simpson Dallara/Honda 80 1:34’29.6604 1’07.0413
22 78 Agustin Canapino Dallara/Chevrolet 79 1:33’25.8966
23 77 Romain Grosjean Dallara/Chevrolet 79 1:33’33.1085
24 30 P. Fittipaldi Dallara/Honda 79 1:33’35.6225
25 2 Joseph Newgarden Dallara/Chevrolet 79 1:33’41.0299
26 18 Jack Harvey Dallara/Honda 79 1:34’05.1083
27 9 Scott Dixon Dallara/Honda 40 1:12’58.7920



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