Newgarden leads Mid-Ohio practice by healthy margin

Opening practice at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course saw Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden comfortably top the times as he goes in search of his first win of the 2021 NTT Indycar Series.

The Nashville, Tennessee native saw a dominant victory snatched away from his grasp at Road America last time out as his Penske Chevrolet developed a problem on the last restart with under five laps to go, just one race since he was overtaken late on by Pato O’Ward for the win in Detroit.

O’Ward himself was also quick but he was a quarter of a second of Newgarden’s table-topping time for Arrow McLaren SP to give Chevrolet a one-two although there was a swarm of Honda’s behind them.

Leading the Honda contingent was Jack Harvey who continuously proves how the little guys can mix it at the front with Meyer Shank Racing, but he is yet to win in Indycar despite many strong performances on road courses.

Alexander Rossi has had something of a nothing season so far so he will desperately want a good weekend and he started well in fourth ahead of Graham Rahal and Romain Grosjean.

Scott Dixon has been fairly anonymous compared to his usual self this year but he still finds himself right in the title fight as he ended practice seventh, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou in ninth.

Sebastien Bourdais split the pair for A.J Foyt Enterprises while James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top ten for Andretti Autosport. Felix Rosenqvist and Rinus VeeKay were both cleared to race after injuries and they finished practice 13th and 18th respectively.