Hughes’ late lap puts him ahead of Hauger in Mid-Ohio practice

Photo: James Black

A late lap put Andretti Global’s Lochie Hughes top of the times in the first practice session of Indy Nxt’s round at Mid-Ohio.

His championship-leading team-mate Dennis Hauger spent the majority of the 45-minute session in first place, but a lap from Hughes in the last two minutes knocked him off the top spot.

Hauger set the pace early in with a 1m11.3485s. It did not take long for laptimes to tumble as drivers found improvements, but nobody was able to keep up with the pace Hauger set.

Roughly midway through practice he set a 1m11.1107s, which would keep him ahead until Hughes’ late lap.

Not long after setting his benchmark, Hauger returned to the pits. He completed the least amount of laps, only 18 compared to the 28 of his title rival Caio Collet and 27 of Salvador de Alba. The only other driver to complete less than 20 laps was Nolan Allaer, who had a slow start to the session.

Hughes set out on fresh tyres with a few minutes to go. His penultimate lap, a 1m11.0263s put him 0.0844s ahead of Hauger and his final effort, a 1m11.1455s, was also better than all but Hauger could achieve as the Norwegian failed to improve once he returned to track.

Abel Motorsports’ Callum Hedge was 0.1992s off the top in third, after also improving late on, with Andretti’s de Alba and HMD Motorsports’ Collet next up.

Myles Rowe (Abel Motorsports with Force Indy) improved on his final lap to go seventh fastest, behind Abel stablemate Jack William Miller.

Andretti Cape’s Ricardo Escotto was briefly in third early on, and ended practice in eighth with a half-second deficit to Hughes.

Back on the grid with HMD was Juan Manuel Correa, who went 14th fastest and brings his team’s line-up up to seven cars.

Free practice results