The ninth race of the season of the IndyCar Series, held on the characteristic circuit of Mid-Ohioreserved continuous surprises during the total 80 laps played, which in the end saw him climb to the top step of the podium Scott McLaughlin. The New Zealander of Penske, in his second success in this championship, has been able to take advantage in the best way of the strategies implemented by his team, in a race characterized by the sensational opportunity wasted by McLaren.
The team, who enjoyed the presence of Pato O’Ward in the role of poleman, he in fact collected the withdraw of the Mexican driver, who arrived after another technical KO accused by his teammate Felix Rosenqvist in the early stages of the GP. While the Swede had to surrender to the Chevrolet engine, which went up in smoke on lap 9, the Mexican raised the white flag due to a transmission failure, which had already compromised his race in the previous laps.
On the other hand, those who did not encounter the slightest problem were Penske’s standard bearer, Scott McLaughlin, able to contain Herta and Dixon’s attacks even after the first caution, called precisely following the withdrawal of Rosenqvist. The decisive episode, however, materialized at 29th laponce again under a caution regime, this time for Kirkwood’s spin: taking advantage of the strategy in his favor, McLaughlin made the pit stop together with Herta – he too betrayed by technical problems in the second half of the race – returning to the track leading the standings ahead of Palou and the American himself, just as O’Ward was beginning to suffer from gearbox problems.
Thirty laps later, and three cautions later – the last of which was decreed due to the sensational contact between the two teammates in Andretti, Rossi and Grosjean, with the retirement of the Frenchman – the New Zealander managed to keep the leadership always ahead of Palou, firmly containing the latter’s attacks even on the occasion of the final ten laps. Finally, the performance of Will Power, author of a spectacular recovery from 21st position on the starting grid to 3rd place finish. Thanks to this performance, the Australian shortens the delay from Marcus Ericsson – who finished 6th today – in the overall standings to 20 points, all pending the next appointment in Toronto, scheduled for July 17th.
Mid-Ohio, Race – Full Ranking
POS. | PILOT | TEAM |
1 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske |
2 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi |
3 | Will Power | Chip Ganassi |
4 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter |
5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi |
6 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi |
7 | Josef Newgarden | Penske |
8 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank |
9 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing |
10 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank |
11 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman |
12 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman |
13 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter |
14 | Takuma Sato | Dale Coyne Racing |
15 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport |
16 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi |
17 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Steinbrenner |
18 | Simona De Silvestro | Paretta Autosport |
19 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport |
20 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman |
DNF | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport |
DNF | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger |
DNF | Pato O’Ward | AJ Foyt |
DNF | Tatiana Calderon | AJ Foyt |
DNF | Dalton Kellet | AJ Foyt |
DNF | Kyle Kirkwood | AJ Foyt |
DNF | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP |
#MidOhio #Race #McLaughlin #wins #exploiting #McLaren #disaster #FormulaPassion.it