Santiago Urrutia has won the weekend’s first Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Second in the Indy Lights points, Urrutia started the race from pole position. He retained the lead at the start and led the entire race.
With the points leader Ed Jones having qualified in fifth place, the race was a good chance not only for Urrutia but also for third-placed Felix Serralles to catch Jones as Serralles had qualified in second place. However Serralles was overtaken by Andre Negrao and Dean Stoneman already on the first lap. On the second lap, Serralles lost one position as Zach Veach who had started in seventh overtook him for fourth place.
Serralles was able to recover a position as he overtook Veach for the fourth place on Lap 8. In an otherwise processional race, Serralles was putting pressure on the third-place Dean Stoneman on the closing laps. However, that wasn’t enough and Stoneman retained the third place by 0.3 seconds to Serralles at the checkered flag. Meanwhile Andre Negrao finished the race in second place, 6.4 seconds behind the winner Urrutia and 4.1 seconds ahead of the third-placed Stoneman.
After losing the fifth place to Zach Veach on the first lap, the points leader Ed Jones ran the entire race in sixth place. As Urrutia had qualified on pole, led most laps in the race, and set the fastest lap in the race, he reduced the gap to Jones by 18 points and Jones’s lead is now only six points.
The best racing in the race was seen behind Jones for the seventh place. Zachary Claman De Melo was getting pressure from Shelby Blackstock, however Blackstock was having trouble to overtake him. The gap between those two extended with four laps to go as Blackstock went wide when trying to overtake De Melo, and De Melo was able to finish the race in seventh place ahead of Blackstock.
The second Indy Lights race at Mid-Ohio takes place on Sunday at 12:20 pm ET (6:20 pm CET). Santiago Urrutia will again start on pole position.
Results:
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Team | Gap | Diff | |
| 1 | 55 | Santiago Urrutia (R) | Montevideo Uruguay | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian | ||
| 2 | 17 | Andre Negrao (R) | Campinas Brazil | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian | + 6,495 | + 6,495 |
| 3 | 27 | Dean Stoneman (R) | Croydon England | Andretti Autosport | + 10,659 | + 4,165 |
| 4 | 4 | Felix Serralles | Ponce Puerto Rico | Carlin | + 11,022 | + 0,363 |
| 5 | 5 | Zach Veach | Stockdale OH | Belardi Auto Racing | + 17,289 | + 6,267 |
| 6 | 11 | Ed Jones | Dubai UAE | Carlin | + 26,803 | + 9,514 |
| 7 | 13 | Zachary Claman De Melo (R) | Montreal Canada | Juncos Racing | + 31,500 | + 4,697 |
| 8 | 51 | Shelby Blackstock | Nashville TN | Andretti Autosport | + 31,832 | + 0,333 |
| 9 | 18 | Kyle Kaiser | Santa Clara CA | Juncos Racing | + 34,917 | + 3,085 |
| 10 | 3 | Garett Grist (R) | Grimsby Canada | Team Pelfrey | + 35,767 | + 0,850 |
| 11 | 28 | Dalton Kellett (R) | Toronto Canada | Andretti Autosport | + 37,885 | + 2,118 |
| 12 | 22 | Neil Alberico (R) | Los Gatos CA | Carlin | + 38,531 | + 0,646 |