IndyCar: Schumacher continues to impress with speed on ovals

      This weekend, in the American state of Wisconsin, the penultimate double-header stage of the IndyCar season is taking place at the short oval Milwaukee Mile, which has a lap length of just 1.633 km. Mick Schumacher is performing more confidently towards the end of the championship, particularly in the oval track stages, as confirmed in today's qualifying. As a result, he will start from the 13th position on Saturday and from the 4th on Sunday. Thus, he has matched his best qualifying result, as he also started fourth in his debut race on an oval at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona at the beginning of the season.

      When a stage consists of two races held on the same track during the weekend, the qualifying format is somewhat unusual: the driver's task is to complete two fast laps, with the time of the first determining the starting position for the Saturday race, and the result of the second for the Sunday race. It is quite rare for the time of the second lap to be better than the first, but today, in Mick's case, it turned out to be so. Despite the fact that, according to Schumacher, who drives for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) team, he was not entirely satisfied with the car's behavior.

      "Definitely, this gives us a good opportunity to earn quite a few points," he commented after qualifying. "In the first race, we will have to work hard, but it seems that our starting position is not so bad."

      By the way, on Sunday, Schumacher will start the race from the most favorable position compared to his RLL teammates, Louis Foster and Graham Rahal. Many drivers received penalties today for engine replacements, including Alex Palou, the leader of the individual standings and practically a five-time IndyCar champion with just five minutes to go. After accounting for all penalties, the Saturday race will start from pole position with Pato O'Ward, the Mexican driver from Arrow McLaren. And on Sunday, the first two rows of the starting grid look like this: Palou, O'Ward, Joseph Newgarden, and Mick Schumacher.