• Alexander Rossi will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday's Honda Indy 200
• Third pole of 2018 for Rossi
• Ryan Hunter-Reay to start third, Robert Wickens fifith for Honda

Alexander Rossi took his Andretti Autosport Honda to the pole today in qualifying for Sunday's Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, leading both the opening and final rounds of "knockout" IndyCar Series qualifying to take his third pole of 2018, and fourth career IndyCar Series pole.

In the third and last qualifying round, Rossi completed just a single flying lap on the quicker, softer-compound "Red" [sidewall] tires.  But his time of 1:04.6802 (125.677 mph) was more than two-tenths of a second quicker than Will Power's best lap, a significant margin in a day otherwise notable for very close qualifying times.

Rossi's Andretti Autosport teammate, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Robert Wickens also advanced to the "Fast Six" final qualifying round, and will start third and fifth, respectively.  Several other Honda drivers appeared ready to advance from second-round qualifying to the final, but a crash by James Hinchcliffe – just after setting fastest time – ended the session early. 

The resulting penalty for causing a stoppage to the qualifying session prevented Hinchcliffe from advancing to final qualifying, and also blunted the efforts of Scott Dixon, Ed Jones, Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato, who had not yet begun their final laps when the red flag waved to end the second qualifying round.

The Honda Indy 300 from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course begins at 3 p.m. EDT Sunday, with live television coverage on the CNBC Network and tape-delayed broadcast on the NBC Sports Network starting at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport Honda) Pole qualifier, fourth career Indy car pole, third pole of 2018: "The NAPA Andretti Honda has been so strong on [alternate, softer compound] 'Reds' [tires] on Lap One, it was strong on them yesterday, too. We thought that [might be] a disadvantage going into qualifying, but when a similar thing happened in Group One for qualifying, we were like 'OK, we will use this to our advantage', especially when the red flag came out. Huge hats off to the team, P1, first and third [for teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay]. The effort that they put in, we were one of the only teams that hasn't tested here. Huge credit to the whole organization.  Hopefully we can convert it to a win tomorrow."

Robert Wickens (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda) Qualified third, eighth top-six qualifying result of 2018: "Q2 [second-round qualifying] was a bit weird. With the Red Flag for 'Hinch' [teammate James Hinchcliffe], I was actually on my first timed lap on 'Reds' [softer compound, alternate tires] and I didn't actually get to do a full lap with the Reds… I got through to final qualifying effectively with my black [primary] tire lap. It was only myself and [Alexander] Rossi that were on the same kind of tire strategy going into the Fast Six, so I thought the Lucas Oil Honda was kind of a shoo-in for the front row; both of us only had half of a lap on our tires. We just struggled to get temperature out of our Reds there, and we had to settle for fifth. My lap felt fantastic, the balance was good, we just couldn't get the grip out of it. I'm feeling a little disappointed with fifth."

Verizon IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 Circuit:                             Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (2.258-mile road course) Lexington, Ohio 2017 Winner:                   Josef Newgarden (Team Penske) 114.677 mph average Weather:                          Mostly sunny, mild, 73 degrees F

Top-12 Qualifying Results:

Other Honda Results

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