New Zealander Scott McLaughlin fought to the very end of qualifying with Pato O'Ward for the pole position, and hopes to end his bad run of results by starting on the front row
Scott McLaughlin came close to securing his second pole position of the 2022 IndyCar Series on Saturday, but Pato O'Ward showed the strength of the McLaren and will start in the Mid-Ohio GP. Despite being overtaken in the final moments, the Penske driver celebrated the result and said he had fun in the Fast Six race.
"We felt we had a reasonable pace and wanted to build on that little by little, and finally getting it right in qualifying and moving into the Fast Six was good. Then, contending for pole and getting as close as we got to Pato was fun. I'm really excited for tomorrow. It's all about qualifying well here, so hopefully I'll get a good start and stay up front," celebrated the New Zealander.
Scott also revealed that he made two mistakes on his final lap on red tires at Mid-Ohio. Turn 12, which in qualifying becomes the first corner because of the modified line, and turn 2, which cost him precious time in the close race for pole-position with O'Ward.
"I didn't get turn 12 right, which is the first turn, and then in turn 2 I went really deep. Yeah, turn 2 probably cost me a little bit of time. But I think the Duck lap was great. I think it was very strong, to be honest. When I crossed the line, I thought, 'I must be pretty close, if not pole,' because we did a run early in qualifying on a used set and scored 1min07s5″, McLaughlin said.
"Doing 1min06s8 was good, and then Duck did 1min06s7, so it shows how much the track has evolved. Anyway, I deliberately told the team, 'Don't tell me the time I'm chasing, just let me drive. That worked well," revealed the New Zealander.
After winning the first round of the season at St. Pete and losing the victory at the last corner at Texas to his teammate, Josef Newgarden, McLaughlin's results went south. The Penske driver has failed to finish in the top five since then, but sees the current moment as better than suffering in 2021 with his qualifying pace.
"I went through so much adversity last year that that was nothing, it was much quieter than what was going on. Unfortunately, the last few races were not good for us. We were competing to potentially be in the top five. It's not like we didn't perform well. Last year, we lost our way a little bit because we didn't have the pace. It was hard to swallow. But certainly last year shaped me to be, 'Trust the process, trust that what you're doing is right,'" Scott concluded.
The start of the Mid-Ohio GP is scheduled for 1:50 pm EST this Sunday, with complete coverage from GRAND PRIX.