INDY LIGHTS: Urrutia on Mid-Ohio Race 1 pole

Reigning Pro Mazda champion Santiago Urrutia earned his first pole of 2016 Saturday morning at Mid-Ohio. The Uruguayan's lap of 1m10.943sec in his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Indy Lights car was a full 0.6795 seconds clear of Carlin Racing's Felix Serralles and 0.7925 seconds ahead of SPM teammate Andre Negrao.

Andretti Autosport's Dean Stoneman was fourth (-0.8784) and championship leader Ed Jones was fifth in his Carlin entry (-0.9084).

"Finally we got pole position," said Urrutia, who holds second behind Jones in the standings. "The Sam Schmidt guys did a great job. I made a mistake with three minutes to go – I spun – but I pushed and got pole position. It's good to be on pole, but I don't care about qualifying. I care about the race and the championship. We just focus on winning the race."

Serralles dealt with traffic on his fastest laps but brushed off the frustration after securing a front-row starting position

"With what I had, I'm really happy," the Puerto Rican said. "I think I could have done a better lap time but you can't manage all the traffic."

The race starts at 3:30 p.m. ET.