O’Ward beats Pallo by 0.5 after thrilling duel

Arrows McLaren’s Pato O’Ward defeated Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Pallo to win the first race of the hybrid era in a thriller at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The 25-year-old Mexican came back from a six-second deficit to lead 24 of the 80 laps and win 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 St. Petersburg victory following the disqualification of Josef Newgarden in a push-to-pass scandal. This is also the sixth win of O’Ward’s career.

Pallo, who had started on pole after beating O’Ward by 0.0024 seconds in qualifying, fell behind at the start of the final stage after starting the race with an impressive pace to lead the 53-lap race. But a poor second stop cost him valuable time and allowed O’Ward to regain track position.

Scott McLaughlin finished third and joined O’Ward and Pallo on the podium. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson took fourth and fifth respectively.

Palo retained the championship lead over Mid-Ohio with 329 points. O’Ward has reached second place with 259 points.

race

The first race of the hybrid era began under lap caution when Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda stalled in Turn 5 due to an electrical failure, causing its engine to shut down. The six-time winner at Mid-Ohio, he was pushed into the back of the wall before the green flag waved.

Dixon finished third in the championship standings at the weekend, 32 points behind leader and team-mate Palou.

Pallo passed the field at the green flag on the alternate start finish line on the back straightaway on Lap 3, making a clean getaway through Turn 4 and building an early gap on the field.

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

By lap 18, Pallo’s lead over fellow front row teammate O’Ward had increased to 5.5 seconds, with Malukus and Herta still running in third and fourth respectively. The Malukus were 12.8 seconds behind. Dixon was able to bounce back from his suspected early hybrid issue, even though he was more than 20 laps behind.

O’Ward made his first pit stop on lap 28, followed by Malukas. Although O’Ward escaped clean after swapping the primary tires for the alternate tires, Malukas stopped him exiting his pit box to eliminate him from the battle for the lead.

Pallo took the lead on the next lap, opting to switch to pit stop and hand the top spot to McLaughlin, who pitted on lap 30 and gave the lead back to Pallo.

After the first wave of pit stops the top five was led by Pallo, with O’Ward 5 seconds behind, followed by McLaughlin, Herta and Newgarden.

Newgarden passed fifth to Ericsson after diving for his second pit stop on lap 36, remaining on the primary and returning to the track in 15th.

Pallo’s lead began to diminish as O’Ward closed the gap to under 3.5 seconds by Lap 45. Although O’Ward got to within 0.4 seconds of Pallo over the next few laps, he drove into the pit lane on lap 54 and changed to the hard primary tyre.

Palou then came on lap 55 and after receiving a set of options slowed out as he was having difficulty getting into first gear. O’Ward quickly passed Pallo, with the former carrying track speed with a pass outside Turn 1, leaving a trail of dust for Pallo to drive through.

After McLaughlin brought his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet to pit on Lap 56, the lead was handed to O’Ward, who maintained a 1.6-second lead over Pallo.

After a second wave of pit stops for the field, the top five was led by O’Ward, followed by Pallo, McLaughlin, Ericsson and Newgarden. Herta finished sixth ahead of rookie Linus Lundqvist of Chip Ganassi Racing.

After a brief off-track excursion, Newgarden made his final stop on Lap 62 and went into the soft compound. Race control gave him a drive-through penalty after a pit lane speed violation, making his weekend difficult.

The battle for the lead began to heat up with 15 laps to go as Pallo caught hold of O’Ward’s rear wing. However, it went wide shortly after as Pallo went slightly out of shape after touching the kerbing at Turn 13.

O’Ward and Pallo finished within 0.5 seconds of each other, with McLaughlin in third, 17 seconds behind, with eight laps remaining.

When O’Ward caught backmarker Agustin Canapino and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson, traffic came into play, leaving Pallo just 0.3 seconds behind with seven laps remaining.

O’Ward was still unable to move past the backmarker as the laps ticked down, but managed to keep Pallo off his back to record a hard-fought victory by just under half a second.

IndyCar Mid-Ohio results