Pato O’Ward was the first driver to set a representative time on used reds in the Fast Six shootout, a 67.0852s, before pitting immediately to grab another set of worn reds.
His time withstood the first efforts by Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske-Chevrolet and his own team-mate Felix Rosenqvist.
Then he lowered the mark still further to 66.7054s, a brilliant lap of 121.861mph around the 2.238-mile course in Ohio that ensured he was over 0.13s ahead of McLaughlin, and half a second up on Rosenqvist, who in the previous two segments had looked faster than the 2018 Indy Lights champion.
In fact, Rosenqvist was sent to the outside of the second row by Andretti Autosport Colton Herta.
The result means O’Ward is the ninth different polesitter in nine races in the 2022 IndyCar Series.
Scott Dixon was the fastest of the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas at the track where he has won six times, albeit 0.7s off the ultimate pace, while Simon Pagenaud’s decision to run two sets of reds on his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda in Q2 helped get him into the Fast Six but obviously hampered him in the final shootout.
Patricio O’Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
Photo by: Gavin Baker / Motorsport Images
Scott McLaughlin, Simon Pagenaud and Callum Ilott started the Q2 session on Firestone’s alternates, and sure enough they went to the top, perhaps surprisingly with Ilott at the top initially, before McLaughlin beat him by 0.12s.
However, while he was still on primaries, David Malukas was able to send the Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda to the top of the speed charts with a 67.1309s.
Then Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi each then took turns at the top, before Colton Herta ducked down to 66.7953s, and was then shaded by Scott Dixon – by a mere 0.0007sec!
The times continued to tumble, with the AMSP cars of Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward again 0.2s apart, pushing Dixon down to third, before McLaughlin launched the #3 Penske-Chevrolet to the top of the times with a 66.5341s.
Herta and Pagenaud completed the top six, but defending champion Alex Palou was pushed out of the top six.
Malukas was disappointed that O’Ward wasn’t penalised for holding him up, leaving him eighth, although just ahead of the driver who beat him to the Indy Lights title, Kyle Kirkwood.
The AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy driver was ninth, but could be happy with being able to beat two surprise non-graduates to the Firestone Fast Six, Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet who has looked strong this weekend, and the man who Kirkwood will replace at Andretti Autosport next year, Rossi.