O’Ward finishes 8th at Mid-Ohio; Newgarden, the winner

Once again, Mid-Ohio was a damage mitigation weekend for Pato O’Ward, who is heading to summer vacation with the general junior leadership in IndyCar.

An error in qualifying relegated the Mexican to the 20th starting position for the day this Sunday, which was the tenth of 16 rounds in the 2021 championship; last year, when this event was a double date, it came 15th in the first competition (by short margins) and 20th in the second (due to a spin on semi-humid ground).

On this occasion, O’Ward almost lost his car on the last lap of the first round, losing enough tenths to be so far behind on the grid.

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However, the Monterrey player advanced as much as he could, in a career that at first seemed like one of survival. After an accident between three cars at the start, in which his teammate got involved in ARROW McLaren SP, Felix Rosenqvist, and a top of Will Power in which Ed Jones he could not avoid the collision, he had already advanced to 12º.

From there, overtaking and overtaking rivals in pits, he entered the top ten, reaching 7th place and chasing a train that was fighting for the podium. Eventually closing on the soft tire hurt O’Ward, who was outbid by Colton Herta y Romain Grosjean. Fortunately, Herta dug into pits on the penultimate lap to refill the fuel tank and promoted the Mexican to eighth.

“Eighth place is much better than where we started,” he declared. I got stuck there. He had no more pace than the guys in front of him, so it was very difficult to advance. But it was a good points salvation in the championship.

“We have to go back and fight for more victories. (Alex) Palou It has been strong, but we have six more chances and I am sure we will be there.

We go back and finish 8th. I will make sure not to leave ANYTHING on the table in the next races to close this championship properly. We are currently second in the championship. We go for all TEAM @ArrowMcLarenSP ????????

– Pato O’Ward (@PatricioOWard) July 4, 2021

For the second consecutive race, O’Ward trailed behind Palou, who took third place and extended his lead in the overall lead to 39 points with six dates remaining and as many as 310 units available.

The competition was won by Newgarden, who led 73 of the event’s 80 laps but had to resist the final attack from Marcus Ericsson. It is the first victory of the year for the American, who due to mechanical failures remained near the top of the podium in the last two rounds. Dixon and Alexander Rossi completed the top five positions.

IndyCar will take the rest of the month off. His next round will be on the streets of Nashville on Sunday, August 8.

CHAMPIONSHIP STATUS

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