Alexander Rossi proved his continued championship contention, claiming a last-minute Verizon P1 Award for the Honda Indy 200 Saturday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The Andretti Autosport driver waited until the the very end of the Fast Six session to make his push for a flying lap, topping the session with a time of 1:04.6802 for his third pole of the season. He led Will Power by 0.2137 with his final lap.
“This one was really special to me,” Rossi said in the post-qualifying press conference. “Honestly, I think road courses have not been my strongest kind of attribute in the rise in the IndyCar Series for whatever reason. It's something that has been our biggest focus really from the middle of last year. We haven't really been able to execute very well on road courses this year. We had a couple Fast Sixes, but we weren't ever really confident that we were going to get a pole.”
“To be able to do that here on arguably the hardest road course we go to is a huge thing, and one that there's a big wave of happiness and relief that kind of washed over me when I was told we got pole.”
Points leader and five-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon missed out on the Fast Six, as he held on to make his final flying lap in the dying seconds of the session. James Hinchcliffe, in posting his fast lap, lost control and brought out the red flag. Dixon was one of those left on the outside looking in. Dixon will start P9, ahead of Hinchcliffe’s P10.
Josef Newgarden qualified ahead of Dixon in P4, as the defending Ohio winner will look to close the gap between them at the top of the standings. He bested Robert Wickens, whose pace was just off on an attempt to push for the pole. Wickens saw some tricky conditions through Friday’s practice sessions, but recovered well for a P5 qualifying run.
Carlin Racing continued to show their improvement coming off of their top Verizon IndyCar Series finish of P5 at Honda Indy Toronto. Max Chilton put his Carlin Chevrolet in the Fast Six, and will start P6 for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200.
Drivers were upset with the fact that they had missed out on the top qualifying sessions, including Graham Rahal whose practice topping times were thwarted by red flags in qualifying. The Ohio native pleaded with IndyCar to reevaluate the red flag rules and enhance penalties for those who cause red flags, while lessening the loss for those who fell victim to the flags. Rahal will start P7.
