Qualifying for round 11 of the 2026 IndyCar season has been completed at Mid-Ohio, view the full report here.
In practice, Andretti led the way on Friday as Will Power was fastest from Kyle Kirkwood. In second practice earlier, Christian Lundgaard led the way from Louis Foster.
After an almost three-hour delay because of lightning (in the area), qualifying got going at 17:30 ET. Despite that, the track was virtually completely dry.
Round 1, Group 1
VeeKay, Rahal, Rasmussen and Foster immediately went for the reds.
The Dutchman led the way on a 1:05.834 before everyone went to reds. Rasmussen, Malukas, Kirkwood, Rahal and Siegel completed the top 6 at that point. 0.7s covered them.
McLaughlin, O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Foster, Grosjean and Dixon needed to improve.
A stunning 1:04.893 from Kyle Kirkwood saw him top the first group by over 0.2s from a very impressive Christian Rasmussen. O’Ward, Malukas, Veekay and Rahal also advanced as big names missed out.
Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist was P7, missing out by 0.01s. Siegel, McLaughlin, Foster, Dixon and Grosjean. The six-time champion rightly lost his best time for interfering the lap of the Frenchman during the session.
Round 1, Group 2
Newgarden, Rossi, Schumacher and Robb started on softs in the second group.
The #2 did a 1:05.200 to lead the #20 by 0.01. Robb and Schumacher did a 1:05.4 and 1:05.5. Palou was the fastest hard runner on a 1:05.677, followed by Will Power on a 1:05.9.
Ericsson, Ferrucci, Lundgaard, Simpson, Collet, Hauger and Armstrong had to improve.
To the surprise of nobody, Alex Palou went P1 when everyone had softs on. He did a 1:04.865, pacing Lundgaard by half a tenth. Ericsson and Newgarden did 1:05.0s to advance, with Power and Collet logging 1:05.1s to also get through.
Sting Ray Robb had a standout qualifying, missing out by less than a hundredth of a second. Mick Schumacher was less than a tenth away himself in P8. Rossi, Simpson, Ferrucci, Armstrong and Hauger also failed to advance.
Less than 0.15 covered the Brazilian rookie to the New Zealander.
Round 12
Palou, Lundgaard and Rasmussen started out on hards, with everyone else on softs.
Pato O’Ward led the way on run 1 with a 1:05.253, ahead of Newgarden, Kirkwood, Power, Malukas and Collet.
Ericsson, Palou, VeeKay, Lundgaard, Rahal and Rasmussen needed to improve. The Spaniard was only half a tenth out after using blacks initially.
On the new softs, the script was flipped. A stonking 1:04.709 from David Malukas saw him fastest, as the Danes of Rasmussen and Lundgaard also advanced with 1:04s. Power, O’Ward and VeeKay also booked their spots in the top 6.
Incredibly, both Palou (8th) and Kirkwood (10th) got bumped as they went 0.2s slower than their times in round 1.
Ericsson, Palou, Newgarden, Kirkwood, Collet and Rahal was the order from 7-12. 0.12 covered 4th to 11th in Round 2 of IndyCar Mid-Ohio qualifying.
Fast 6
Christian Rasmussen did a 1:05.619 early on, with the other five drivers either posting a slow time or not heading out until the end.
Set for the exit door at Arrow McLaren come the end of 2026, Christian Lundgaard fired in a 1:04.839 to take pole position by 0.02 from teammate Pato O’Ward. Will Power and David Malukas were also less than tenth from pole.
Rasmussen and VeeKay ended up almost 0.4s and 0.6s away respectively.
