Colton Herta snatched pole position from Graham Rahal in the final moments of IndyCar Series qualifying at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with a masterstroke of strategic genius.

Herta’s time of 1:06.3096s averaged 122.589mph around the 13-turn, 2.258-mile natural terrain road course, but how the Californian accomplished that time was nothing short of spectacular.

Instead of using Firestone’s softer red sidewall alternate compound tyre that gives more grip at the expense of tyre life, Herta’s team put on a new set of the black sidewall primary compound tyres, gambling that they would be faster for a quick final run in the Firestone Fast Six.

“It was a tough call,” Herta said. “It seemed like reds and blacks were pretty close on a second run and new, so it wasn’t an easy one but they gave me a good car that was good on both tyre compounds so we had the option to run both. And yeah, the Gainbridge Honda was flying and yeah, just really happy to get two in a row.”

Herta started on pole position for the most recent IndyCar race at Road America.

Rahal starts alongside Herta for his first front row start since starting second at Barber Motorsports Park in 2019. The Ohio native was on provisional pole position until Herta snatched the pole with the last lap of the session by 0.0432s.

“It’s a great time to get the Fifth Third Bank car up front and doing well, obviously we’ve got a lot of laps tomorrow to keep it there,” Rahal said.

“I’m so proud of everybody at RLL, the 15 car of course, the 30, the 45, everybody’s just done an amazing job keeping their heads down in the midst a tough season.”

Rahal’s team decided on a used set of the red sidewall tyres for his final qualifying run. That decision, plus not using a second new set of the primary compound tyres in the morning practice session means that the 2015 Mid-Ohio winner will have a lot of strategic options for Sunday’s 80-lap race.

“We only missed it by four hundredths, but that’s IndyCar racing right now,” Rahal said.

“I think there’s what, four of us within six hundredths or seven hundredths, less than a tenth in the top two [rows], so we’re good but our race pace I think is better than our qualifying pace so I’m excited for tomorrow.”

Kyle Kirkwood qualified third-fastest ahead of IndyCar points leader Alex Palou in fourth. Christian Lundgaard and Scott Dixon qualified fifth and sixth respectively as the final two competitors in the Firestone Fast Six.

The first group in round one was full of heavy hitters and the biggest loser in that group was Pato O’Ward. The 2022 Mid-Ohio pole-sitter was fastest in Friday’s opening practice session but spun his car coming out of The Keyhole.

The #5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet stalled after it reached the grass on the right side of the track. Per IndyCar’s rulebook, O’Ward lost his two best laps to that point in the session, could not participate any further in qualifying and could not advance to the second round. The Mexican racer will start 25th on Sunday.

“It was obviously my mistake, I just feel for the team,” O’Ward said on the Peacock broadcast.

“We had a really fast car, that doesn’t mean we can’t go forward tomorrow.

“It was all on me on that one. I lost the rear and it got to an angle where I couldn’t save it and then stalled it as soon as I got into the grass. So yeah, it just fricken sucks.”

After qualifying resumed, the rest of group one finished their runs with no further incidents as Marcus Ericsson, Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Scott McLaughlin, Jack Harvey and David Malukas advanced to the second round. Alexander Rossi was seventh, 0.0389 seconds off Malukas’s best lap.

In the second group, Kirkwood led Dixon, Herta, Lundgaard, Will Power and Rahal to advance to the second round of qualifying. Simon Pagenaud was seeded for group two of the first round in qualifying, but the Frenchman has not yet been medically cleared to drive following his Saturday morning practice crash.

If Pagenaud is not medically cleared following a Sunday morning medical examination, it is understood that Conor Daly will be behind the wheel of the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.

The second round of qualifying ended without incident as Herta, Lundgaard, Rahal, Kirkwood, Dixon and Palou advanced to the Firestone Fast Six. Power led the group not moving on, qualifying 0.1276 seconds slower than Palou.

McLaughlin qualified eighth. Fellow Kiwi Marcus Armstrong will start 18th.