McLaughlin wins at Mid-Ohio, Pagenaud and Grosjean distance

Mathieu WARNIER, Media365, published on Monday 04 July 2022 at 00:05

For the second time this season, Scott McLaughlin won the IndyCar at the Mid-Ohio Grand Prix. Simon Pagenaud finished 10th when Romain Grosjean finished one lap behind the winner.

Scott McLaughlin found the recipe. The New Zealand driver, who kicked off the IndyCar season with fanfare on the streets of St. Petersburg before seeing victory narrowly escaped him at the Texas Oval, didn’t let anyone win at the Mid-Ohio circuit. Despite staying behind Pato O’Ward in the early part of the race, which was marked by the yellow flag caused by Felix Rosenqvist’s retirement, the Penske driver took advantage of the problems of the Mexican single-seat engine to sit in place. controls. The latter finally had to retire on lap 54 when he got stuck when leaving the pits and was unable to restart. Despite several disqualifications, Scott McLaughlin kept his cool in the face of pressure from IndyCar champ Alex Ballou.

McLaughlin finds his feet

Will Power, who was pushed down the standings at the start of the race after colliding with Takuma Sato, was able to gradually climb to the top of the peloton, with the help of safety car interventions, to finish third in the lead. From Rinus VeeKay and Scott Dixon, who completed the top 5. Starting from sixth on the starting grid, Simon Pagenaud failed to implement his strategy and had to settle for 10th, 26 seconds behind the winner. Romain Grosjean, after a complicated qualifying session, was not helped by a collision with fellow Andretti Autosport Alexander Rossi which made him stop. After going down one lap, the Frenchman finished 21st in a race to be forgotten. In sixth place this Sunday in mid-Ohio, Marcus Ericsson retains the championship lead, but the Swede sees Will Power close to 20 points ahead of the urban race in Toronto, back on the calendar after two years of absence.

IndyCar/Med-Oyo Grand Prix
Final classification – 80 laps (289,680 km) – Sunday 3 July 2022
1- Scott McLaughlin (New Zealand / Team Penske) at 46, 43, 3290
2- Alex Ballou (ESP/Chip Ganassi Racing) at 0.5512
3- Will Power (Australia/Team Penske) at 3″ 9415
4- Rinus VeeKay (PBS / Ed Carpenter Racing) at 11”3742
5- Scott Dixon (NZL/Chip Ganassi Racing) at 12”3194
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10- Simon Pagenaud (FRA / Meyer Shank Racing) at 26”1914
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21- Romain Grosjean (FRA / Andretti Autosport) in one lap
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Drivers’ Championship standings after 9 races (out of 17)
1- Marcus Ericsson (SUE / Chip Ganassi Racing) 321 points
2- 301
3- Joseph Newgarden (USA / Team Penske) 287
4- 286- Abdul Majeed
5- Patou Oward (Mix / McLaren) 256
…
9- Khaled Abdul Majeed Abdullah 217
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14- Romain Grosjean (FRA / Andretti Autosport) 183
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