Scott McLaughlin benefited from the retirement of Pato O'Ward and held off the onslaught of Álex Palou to win for the second time at Indy in 2022. Helio Castroneves was in the top-10 for the third time this year
Scott McLaughlin won again at Indy. The New Zealander won the Mid-Ohio GP, held in Lexington, on Sunday afternoon (3). Starting second, the Penske driver took advantage of Pato O'Ward's retirement and defended against defending champion Álex Palou, from Ganassi, to win for the second time in his career.
Australian Will Power, McLaughlin's Penske teammate, was one of the highlights of the eventful race. After starting 21st and spinning out on the first lap while trying to overtake, he managed to recover to save a podium finish. Interestingly, the McLaughlin-Palou-Power top-3 came in the championship opener at St. Pete.
Carpenter's Rinus VeeKay did a good job and came in fourth, followed by six-time champion Scott Dixon of Ganassi, who was fifth.
The championship leader, Swede Marcus Ericsson, of Ganassi, finished sixth, followed by Penske's Josef Newgarden and Meyer Shank's Helio Castroneves. David Malukas and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top-10.
Pole-position Pato O'Ward had to retire at Mid-Ohio. The Mexican was leading comfortably until he had gearbox problems, crashed out of the race, and eventually retired, losing valuable points.
The race was also marked by several conflicts between Andretti drivers. Alexander Rossi forced teammates Romain Grosjean and Devlin DeFrancesco off the track. The Franco-Swiss driver didn't escape the confusion either, touching Colton Herta and causing the owner of the #26 to escape in turn 4.
Indy returns on July 17 with the Toronto GP in Canada. It will be the 10th of 17 rounds in the 2022 championship.
Learn how the Indy Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio went:
The start was delayed by one lap due to grid misalignment. With the green flag, O'Ward started well and held the lead. Rosenqvist also did well, knocking Herta out of the lead and moving up to third. At the back of the pack, Power tried a dive out of 21st place, but he touched Lundgaard and spun, dropping to last place.
Rosenqvist was quietly running in third position when an engine blowout on lap 9 ended the Swedish driver's race, bringing out the yellow flag. At this stage, the top-10 was made up of O'Ward, McLaughlin, Herta, Dixon, Pagenaud, Palou, Kirkwood, Malukas, Rossi, and Ilott. Drivers from the back of the grid like Rahal, Power and Harvey took the opportunity to pit-stop for the first time.
The race was restarted on lap 13. O'Ward once again jumped clear in first, while Herta went off badly, losing third place to Dixon. The Andretti driver was pressured hard by Pagenaud, but held on to fourth place. The Frenchman from Meyer Shank spared no complaints for his opponent's defense.
With 20 laps to go, O'Ward was leading 1s046 ahead of McLaughlin. The rest of the top-10 included Dixon, Herta, Pagenaud, Palou, Malukas, Kirkwood, Rossi, and Ilott. Among the other title contenders, Newgarden was 11th, Ericsson was 14th, while Power recovered to 18th.
With 24 laps to go, Newgarden, VeeKay and Lundgaard stopped, switching from hard to soft tires. O'Ward reported gearbox problems and saw McLaughlin and Dixon approach. Among the frontrunners, the first to stop was Pagenaud, on lap 28, changing from red to black compounds.
Pato and Dixon stopped on lap 29. Both came out behind Palou. Meanwhile, Kirkwood ran off the track at turn 9. The yellow flag took a while to come out, and McLaughlin and Herta ran into the pits. Both also came back behind Álex Palou, who became the new leader. The pace car finally came on the track.
The race direction determined that McLaughlin should stay ahead of Palou because of the yellow entry, putting the New Zealander in the lead, with the Spaniard second on soft tires. Herta, O'Ward and Dixon made up the rest of the top-5 on hard tires. Newgarden and VeeKay were on soft tires, followed by Pagenaud, Ericsson and Malukas on hard.
The green flag was given on lap 36. Palou put pressure on McLaughlin, and the New Zealander defended himself very well. In 23rd place, Kellett was touched by Harvey, who was fighting for position with De Silvestro, and ended up spinning, generating a new yellow flag. The restart came on the 40th lap of the race. Once again, McLaughlin defended himself very well against Palou's attacks. The highlight was VeeKay, who, in one movement, overtook Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon.
VeeKay followed up by overtaking O'Ward. Power, in a great recovery, pushed Pagenaud and Rossi out of the way, jumping to ninth position. Without pace, Duck plummeted and lost positions to Dixon, Newgarden and Ericsson.
With 30 laps to go, McLaughlin had a 1s02 lead over Palou. Herta, VeeKay, Dixon, Newgarden, Ercisson, Power, Rossi, and Grosjean made up the top-10. O'Ward kept losing positions, while Sato ran off the track and into the gravel, dropping from 16th to 24th.
On lap 53, Tatiana Calderón pulled over at turn 4 with problems and had to retire. Drivers took the opportunity to make pit-stops for the second time, and one of them was Pato O'Ward, who saw his car go out for good on the exit of the pits and abandoned, causing a yellow flag. Almost the entire grid went into the pits, with the exception of Colton Herta, who missed the window and stayed on track.
The green flag was brought out on lap 58. Herta tried to open up as much advantage as possible and jumped out to a good start. VeeKay and Power were battling for fourth place, with the Australian managing to overtake. Meanwhile, Callum Ilott saw the Juncos suffer engine problems and retired to the pits.
Grosjean and Rossi were battling for tenth place, and the American pushed the Frenchman into the gravel box at turn two, causing another yellow flag at Lexington. Herta took advantage of the opening of the pits to finally make his second stop of the race.
The restart happened on lap 63. McLaughlin, the leader, held on to first place. Power tried to take advantage of Palou's mistake to take second place, but couldn't. Dixon put a lot of pressure on VeeKay for fourth place. Castroneves gained a lot of ground, overtaking Pagenaud, Malukas, and Harvey to take eighth place. In the last positions, Herta spun after a touch with Grosjean.
Palou caught up with McLaughlin and began to press in the closing laps, but the New Zealander resisted well. The conflicts at Andretti continued, now with Alexander Rossi colliding with Devlin DeFrancesco. The owner of the #27 car was eventually punished.