Power sets fastest ever lap of Mid-Ohio
Will Power went quickest in second practice and set an unofficial track record, with the fastest lap in the history of the Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course.
Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
IndyCar Series
The #12 Team Penske-Chevrolet lapped in 64.1962sec, an average speed of 126.624mph around the 2.258-mile course. That was 0.27sec quicker than his nearest pursuer, Chip Ganassi Racing-Chevy’s Tony Kanaan. However, the record will remain unofficial given that it was set in free practice.
The question is, how much more was there to come from the leading runners? Heavy rain effectively brought action to a close some 25mins from the end of the 75-minute session. Perhaps prudently given the forecast of scattered thunderstorms throughout the weekend, Sebastien Bourdais (KVSH Racing-Chevy) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Penske) ventured out for exploratory laps as the rain came down.
Third fastest was championship leader Simon Pagenaud in the #22 Penske, 0.34 from the top, while his former Atlantic Championship rival and last year’s Mid-Ohio winner Graham Rahal was fourth, highest placed Honda.
Josef Newgarden was fifth for Ed Carpenter Racing, 2013 Mid-Ohio winner Charlie Kimball was sixth, but the most startling result was the P7 of Dale Coyne Racing-Honda debutant RC Enerson.
Another star rookie was Spencer Pigot, who went eighth, less than 0.2sec behind teammate Newgarden, while Alexander Rossi also impressed. He went very wide at Turn 1, kicking up grass and sand having strayed the wrong side of the curbing, yet on the very next lap nailed his fastest time, less than a tenth slower than Andretti Autosport-Honda teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay.
P. | N° | Driver | Team (Engine) | Time/deficit |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | Will Power | Penske (C) | 1:04.1962 |
2 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | Ganassi (C) | 0.2701 |
3 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | Penske (C) | 0.3391 |
4 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal (H) | 0.4020 |
5 | 21 | Josef Newgarden | Carpenter (C) | 0.4430 |
6 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | Ganassi (C) | 0.4467 |
7 | 19 | R.C. Enerson | Coyne (H) | 0.5322 |
8 | 20 | Spencer Pigot | Carpenter (C) | 0.5880 |
9 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt (H) | 0.6060 |
10 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi (C) | 0.6375 |
11 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti (H) | 0.6637 |
12 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | Penske (C) | 0.7010 |
13 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti-Herta (H) | 0.7124 |
14 | 26 | Carlos Muñoz | Andretti (H) | 0.7404 |
15 | 18 | Conor Daly | Coyne (H) | 0.7617 |
16 | 41 | Jack Hawksworth | Foyt (H) | 0.7881 |
17 | 2 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Penske (C) | 0.8593 |
18 | 8 | Max Chilton | Ganassi (C) | 0.8969 |
19 | 11 | Sébastien Bourdais | KVSH (C) | 0.9203 |
20 | 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt (H) | 1.0683 |
21 | 27 | Marco Andretti | Andretti (H) | 1.1116 |
22 | 14 | Takuma Sato | Foyt (H) | 1.1911 |
(C) = Chevrolet, (H) = Honda
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