By Steve Wittich

For the second straight Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires qualifying session, the field was covered by less than a second. It was still the same driver, Patricio O’Ward, on top, but today, he wasn’t nearly as dominant.

Aaron Telitz (2nd) and Colton Herta (3rd) were both within three-hundredths of a second of the Andretti Autosport rookie.

It is O’Wards eighth pole of the season, tying him with Bryan Herta, Townsend Bell, Thiago Mederios, and Ed Jones for the most poles in an Indy Lights season.

The Mexican driver now has 13 career Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires poles.

The second 25-minute Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires qualifying session that will set the grid for Sunday afternoon’s “feature” race began at 9:20 AM. The ambient temperature was 64F, and the track temperature was 78F.

Santi Urrutia was the first driver to grab a provisional pole and with ten minutes remaining in the session was still on top of the timing screens with a lap of 71.652 seconds. That was 0.3374 seconds better than Race #1 polesitter and points leader Patricio O’Ward.

With eight minutes remaining times started to fall with Norman, Telitz, and Kellett all improving their lap times.

With just over five minutes left in the session, O’Ward went back to the provisional pole spot. First Franzoni and then Herta moved to the outside of the front row.

O’Ward’s lap of 61.159 seconds came under assault with Herta turning a lap that was only three-hundredths slower, which held onto the outside of the front row for a few seconds before Telitz turned a lap that was just one-hundredth behind Telitz.

Cooper Tires Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Powered by Mazda Unofficial Qualifying Results #2

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER QUICK LAP TEAM DIFFERENCE
1 27 Patricio O’Ward 1:11.159 Andretti Autosport –.—-
2 9 Aaron Telitz 1:11.176 Belardi Auto Racing 0.0166
3 98 Colton Herta 1:11.198 Andretti Steinbrenner Racing 0.0385
4 23 Victor Franzoni 1:11.551 Juncos Racing 0.3918
5 5 Santi Urrutia 1:11.556 Belardi Auto Racing 0.3974
6 28 Dalton Kellett 1:11.946 Andretti Autosport 0.7868
7 48 Ryan Norman 1:11.973 Andretti Autosport 0.8136

The first Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires race of the weekend rolls off at 3:05 PM this afternoon.