Caio Collet continued his strong form this season and at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday morning by leading pre-qualifying practice for the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio.

2024 series Rookie of the Year Collet, winner of the most recent race this season at Road America, earned his first career pole and victory in the INDYCAR development series last July at the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course north of Columbus, Ohio. His best lap this morning was 1 minute, 10.0372 seconds in the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car. That’s quicker than the track-record lap of 1:10.2879 he set to win pole last July, but track records only can be set in qualifying or the race.

SEE: Practice Results

“It was a good practice,” Collet said. “Both the new-tire run and the push run, we were quite competitive. We got a good lap in, and I’m happy with that. Hopefully we can do a little improvement for qualifying and get the track record again.”

Up next is qualifying at 1:30 p.m. today, with the 35-lap race starting at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network will broadcast both sessions.

Championship leader Dennis Hauger was second for the second consecutive session this weekend, this time with a top lap of 1:10.0501 in the No. 28 Nammo car of Andretti Global. Callum Hedge also held station in third in the No. 17 Abel Motorsports entry, this time improving to 1:10:1586.

Just .1214 of a second separated Collet, Hauger and Hedge.

Salvador de Alba also stayed in fourth, dropping his time to 1:10.3364 in the No. 27 Grupo Indi machine of Andretti Global. Ricardo Escotto rounded out the top five at 1:10.5149 in the No. 3 Frank’s Red Hot car of Andretti – Cape Motorsport.

Lochie Hughes, leader of Friday’s practice, was sixth at 1:10.6199 in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car of Andretti Global.

A red flag interrupted the 45-minute session just as it was reaching its crescendo with nearly every driver simulating qualifying runs on new Firestone tires. Nolan Allaer spun off course and backed into the tire barrier in Turn 9 in his No. 11 HMD Motorsports car, triggering a red flag with slightly more than five minutes left.

The track returned to green-flag conditions with only a minute remaining, leaving little time for more work.