Rahal leads incident-filled third practice at Mid-Ohio

Graham Rahal topped a chaotic third practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (3:00 p.m. ET, CNBC).

Rahal’s quick lap of 1:05.206 was just over four hundredths of a second quicker than Josef Newgarden, with his Team Penske teammate Will Power ending the session in third. Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon rounded out the top five.

However, the session was red flagged three times for separate incidents on the track. The first came within the first 15 minutes of running, when Pietro Fittipaldi spun in Turn 3 and ended up in the gravel trap.

We're back to green after @PiFitti went off track.

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Fittipaldi did not suffer any wall contact and was able to continue, but the next incident did see wall contact, as Matheus Leist spun exiting Turn 9 and bounced off the outside wall with just over 20 minutes remaining.

Red flag waves as @MatheusLeist spins off in Turn 9.

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And the final incident of the session came in the final minutes and also saw contact, as Simon Pagenaud spun exiting Turn 11, slid through the Carousel, and gently nosed into the tire barrier.

🎥Replay: @simonpagenaud goes off track in Turn 12.

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— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 28, 2018

Simultaneously, Spencer Pigot also spun in Turn 1 after clipping the inside curbing. However, he did not suffer any damage and continued on.

INDYCAR officials ultimately got everything cleaned up to allow all drivers and teams to get one more flying lap if they chose to do so, but no one was able to turn in a lap quick enough to knock Rahal off the top spot.

Results from Practice 3 are below. Qualifying rolls off at 1:30 p.m. ET.

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