Pagenaud wins, Power second at Mid-Ohio

Simon Pagenaud has overcome crippling back pain to regain his winning form in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

Pagenaud completed the 90-lap race by beating his Penske team-mate and chief protagonist Will Power by 4.1s.

The Andretti Autosport driver Carlos Munoz was third as Pagenaud extended his lead to 58 points over Power.

Pagenaud, who had complained of severe back pain earlier in the weekend, was treated with painkillers by the IndyCar medical team to get him through the remainder of the round.

The Frenchman sized up Power on a restart with just over 30 laps remaining with the pair making contact a couple of times in the heat of battle before Pagenaud slipped past in a hard but fair dice to move into second position.

Stan Sport is the only way to watch every round of the INDYCAR SERIES. Click here for all the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand.

Conor Daly (Dale Coyne Racing) remained in the lead but had to pit for fuel with six laps remaining before finishing sixth while James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt-Peterson) and Graham Rahal (Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan) was fourth.

Pagenaud had to be helped out of his car on returning to victory lane, although he had thanked medical staff with helping him to get through a weekend which was pivotal to his title chances.

“My back was fine all race thanks to the IndyCar medical,” Pagenaud said.

“It was fair and clean (the dice with Power). I never lost faith and when it was time to push it was easy to put down some fast laps.”

Power was left regretting being slow to react to Pagenaud’s charge on a restart but congratulated his rival on a fair fight.

“I was sleeping on the that bloody restart. I should have been more in it,” Power said.

“Then I got on the marbles and it was a good clean battle (with Pagenaud). He saw there was an opportunity and he was on top of it as he should.”

Pagenaud and Power were the only two in the top five in the points not to have problems with Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) finishing 15th while Scott Dixon (Ganassi) was ultimately forced out of the running after a tangle with Castroneves on lap 15 with Josef Newgarden (Ed Carpenter Racing) finishing 10th.

The result is that Dixon has dropped one place to fifth in the standings as his charge to defend his title from last season remains on the edge.

It was Pagenaud’s fourth win of the season after he recorded three consecutive victories in a purple patch that ended at the Indianapolis road course race in early May.

Takuma Sato (AJ Foyt) and Sebastien Bourdais (KSVH) came together with four laps to go as the latter slewed into the back of the Japanese driver sending both off course.

Sato was able to rejoin but Bourdais was buried in a sand trap.

 

RESULT: Honda Indy 300 at Mid-Ohio

Pos	Driver	Car/Engine	Laps	Time/Delay
1	Simon Pagenaud	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	1h 49:59.6875
2	Will Power	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	4.1620
3	Carlos Munoz	Dallara/Honda	90	6.5662
4	Graham Rahal	Dallara/Honda	90	7.0196
5	James Hinchcliffe	Dallara/Honda	90	11.1260
6	Conor Daly	Dallara/Honda	90	11.8526
7	Spencer Pigot	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	12.8831
8	Charlie Kimball	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	15.0016
9	Takuma Sato	Dallara/Honda	90	18.0128
10	Josef Newgarden	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	18.5404
11	Juan Pablo Montoya	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	20.6074
12	Tony Kanaan	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	23.9632
13	Marco Andretti	Dallara/Honda	90	24.7606
14	Alexander Rossi	Dallara/Honda	90	25.5191
15	Helio Castroneves	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	26.6191
16	Max Chilton	Dallara/Chevrolet	90	26.8199
17	Mikhail Aleshin	Dallara/Honda	90	42.7274
18	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Dallara/Honda	90	53.5383
19	R.C. Enerson	Dallara/Honda	89	1 Lap
20	Sebastien Bourdais	Dallara/Chevrolet	86	Spun off
21	Jack Hawksworth	Dallara/Honda	60	Contact
22	Scott Dixon	Dallara/Chevrolet	27	Mechanical

Points standings

Pos Driver Points 1 Simon Pagenaud 484 2 Will Power 426 3 Helio Castroneves 373 4 Josef Newgarden 364 5 Scott Dixon 357 6 Tony Kanaan 357 7 James Hinchcliffe 329 8 Carlos Munoz 328 9 Graham Rahal 324 10 Charlie Kimball 318 11 Alexander Rossi 316 12 Juan Pablo Montoya 299 13 Ryan Hunter-Reay 294 14 Sebastien Bourdais 283 15 Takuma Sato 257 16 Mikhail Aleshin 243 17 Conor Daly 240 18 Marco Andretti 237 19 Max Chilton 187 20 Jack Hawksworth 162 21 Spencer Pigot 134 22 Gabby Chaves 105 23 J.R. Hildebrand 84 24 Oriol Servia 72 25 Luca Filippi 61 26 Townsend Bell 55 27 Ed Carpenter 45 28 Matthew Brabham 37 29 Alex Tagliani 35 30 Pippa Mann 33 31 Sage Karam 22 32 Bryan Clauson 21 33 Stefan Wilson 14 34 Buddy Lazier 12 35 R.C. Enerson 11   s