Simon Pagenaud takes IndyCar win at Mid-Ohio

Samuel Reiman

Points leader Simon Pagenaud got his fourth win of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series at the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio on Sunday.

Pagenaud led the field away for the first of 90 laps after taking his sixth pole of the season.

The first round of stops had just started when the first caution of the race flew as Scott Dixon attempted a pass on Helio Castroneves. The two made contact and Dixon’s front-left suspension was bent underneath his chassis. Dixon had proven to be fast all weekend but had qualified in a dismal 11th position and was trying to make his way up through the field.

Castroneves also sustained damage, and was forced to pit for a new rear wing. He wasn’t the only one, as Josef Newgarden had to stop for a new rear-wing unit after being clipped by Will Power.

Another driver to hit misfortune was IndyCar debutant RC Enerson, who set the fastest lap on his in-lap heading into the pits, but then was unable to re-fire after his stop was over.

The second caution of the race flew on Lap 60 when Jack Hawksworth ran off at the first turn and made hard contact with the wall. Fortunately, he was OK.

Mikhail Aleshin led the field down pit road under the yellow, having made his way to the the front after short-pitting just before the first caution had flew.

However, as Aleshin went to leave his pit stall, he got into Josef Newgarden, forcing him to drop to the rear.

Conor Daly - who had yet to make his final stop - was promoted to the top spot for the final restart, while Pagenaud and Power engaged in a scrap for second behind him, with Pagenaud coming out the victor. When Daly pit with six laps to go, Pagenaud, Power and Carlos Munoz were promoted into the podium spots, where they finished.

Takuma Sato and Sebastien Bourdais got together with four laps left to go, but the race stayed green to the end.

Unofficial race results:

1. Simon Pagenaud
2. Will Power
3. Carlos Munoz
4. Graham Rahal
5. James Hinchcliffe
6. Conor Daly
7. Spencer Pigot
8. Charlie Kimball
9. Takuma Sato
10. Josef Newgarden
11. Juan Pablo Montoya
12. Tony Kanaan
13. Marco Andretti
14. Alexander Rossi
15. Helio Castroneves
16. Max Chilton
17. Mikhail Aleshin
18. Ryan Hunter-Reay
19. RC Enerson
20. Sebastien Bourdais (DNF)
21. Jack Hawksworth (DNF)
22. Scott Dixon (DNF)