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Qualifying report
IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis Race 2

IMS IndyCar: Rosenqvist takes great pole, heartache for Ericsson

On the track where he scored his first pole, Felix Rosenqvist outpaced his nearest rival by over a quarter-second to take pole for Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet, but compatriot Marcus Ericsson will start the Gallagher Grand Prix from the back of the field

Firestone Fast Six

Will Power and Pato O’Ward set banker laps on Firestone primaries, whereas Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi and Christian Lundgaard immediately emerged from the pits on reds. That meant Rossi initially went to the top with a 70.6775sec lap ahead of Lundgaard and Newgarden.

Rosenqvist did only a sighting lap on primaries, then sat in the pits until the final three minutes of the session, and then emerged on reds that had only one flyer on them from Q1 to produce a 70.2265sec lap. That was over a quarter second better than his closest opposition, Rossi, and 0.38sec faster than teammate O’Ward.

Power led the Penske charge in fourth, just 0.0744sec ahead of Newgarden, with Lundgaard completing the top six for Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda.

P Name FTime Diff FL Laps FSpeed Engine Tire Team
1 Felix Rosenqvist 1:10.2265 - 2 2 125.030 Chevy A Arrow McLaren SP
2 Alexander Rossi 1:10.5030 0.2765 3 3 124.539 Honda A Andretti Autosport
3 Pato O'Ward 1:10.6092 0.3827 3 3 124.352 Chevy A Arrow McLaren SP
4 Will Power 1:10.6224 0.3959 3 3 124.329 Chevy A Team Penske
5 Josef Newgarden 1:10.6968 0.4703 3 3 124.198 Chevy A Team Penske
6 Christian Lundgaard 1:10.7280 0.5015 1 2 124.143 Honda A Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Q2

Colton Herta was fastest driver on primaries, turning a 71.3913sec lap – 0.28sec faster than Alex Palou – before ducking into the pitlane to collect his alternates. On the softer rubber, Felix Rosenqvist initially set the benchmark with a 70.0781sec, and then Will Power shaded him by 0.0504sec, and Newgarden moved to third.

The driver who topped morning practice, Alexander Rossi, became the only Andretti Autosport driver to make it through, as Herta’s car looked too tail happy on the Firestone alternates. O’Ward made it two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets in the top six, despite his earlier complaints about the handling, and Christian Lundgaard produced arguably the most encouraging flying lap of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s season, to wind up just 0.15sec behind Power.

Ganassi’s Palou came up 0.027sec short of the Fast Six, but was still fast enough to beat the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevys.

David Malukas was disappointed to discover he had major front brake issues by the time he strapped on the reds, so his lap time, only half a second off Power, was very creditable.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Will Power

1:10.0277

-

5

5

125.385

Chevy

A

Team Penske

2

Felix Rosenqvist

1:10.0781

0.0504

5

6

125.294

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

3

Josef Newgarden

1:10.1156

0.0879

5

6

125.227

Chevy

A

Team Penske

4

Alexander Rossi

1:10.1295

0.1018

5

6

125.203

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

5

Pato O'Ward

1:10.1574

0.1297

5

5

125.153

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

6

Christian Lundgaard

1:10.1805

0.1528

5

6

125.112

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

7

Alex Palou

1:10.2074

0.1797

6

7

125.064

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

8

Rinus VeeKay

1:10.3100

0.2823

5

6

124.881

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

9

Colton Herta

1:10.3532

0.3255

6

6

124.805

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

10

Conor Daly

1:10.5135

0.4858

5

6

124.521

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

11

David Malukas

1:10.5636

0.5359

4

5

124.432

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

12

Simon Pagenaud

1:10.7624

0.7347

5

5

124.083

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

 

Q1 Group 2

Championship leader Marcus Ericsson was massively unlucky to be asked by his engineer to shut down his car, as they saw data that they didn’t like during his out lap, because that brought out the red flag, the cancelation of his two best laps (obviously a moot point) and thus consigning him to the back of the grid.

Because of the red flag, the drivers filed into pitlane and unanimously switched to Firestone reds. Alex Palou was the first driver in the group to deliver a 70sec lap, a 70.5330, but this was swiftly eclipsed by Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP, Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing.

Still Palou held on to be the only Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda to escape Q1, as Scott Dixon couldn’t find a clear lap while on reds. Alexander Rossi – fastest in practice this morning – was able to advance. Rookie David Malukas outpaced his teammate Takuma Sato to put the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports into Q2.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Felix Rosenqvist

1:10.1220

-

4

4

125.216

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

2

Colton Herta

1:10.1641

0.0421

3

3

125.141

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

3

Rinus VeeKay

1:10.1821

0.0601

4

5

125.109

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

4

Alex Palou

1:10.3786

0.2566

4

5

124.760

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

5

Alexander Rossi

1:10.3844

0.2624

3

4

124.749

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

6

David Malukas

1:10.6239

0.5019

4

5

124.326

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

7

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:10.7073

0.5853

3

4

124.180

Honda

A

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

8

Helio Castroneves

1:10.7560

0.6340

3

4

124.094

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

9

Takuma Sato

1:10.8276

0.7056

4

5

123.969

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

10

Scott Dixon

1:10.8938

0.7718

3

4

123.853

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

11

Romain Grosjean

1:11.0244

0.9024

4

5

123.625

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

12

Dalton Kellett

1:12.0060

1.8840

3

5

121.940

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

13

Marcus Ericsson

No Time

---

--

---

---

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

 

Q1 Group 1

Rahal Letterman Langian-Honda’s Christian Lundgaard was the fastest driver on Firestone’s primary rubber in this first group, running a 71.4399sec, almost three-tenths faster than Callum Ilott who yesterday was confirmed as remaining at Juncos Hollinger Racing-Cherolet

With everyone onto the Firestone alternate rubber, and Lundgaard delivered a 70.7718s, but was eclipsed by Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Josef Newgarden, and then Conor Daly produced fastest time for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, to jump Newgarden and Will Power.

Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP wrestled his car into the top six, despite complaining of its handling. Lundgaard, on the track where he made his IndyCar debut last year, was able to progress to Q2, but his teammates Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal would progress no further, and Scott McLaughlin in the third Penske was also left outside.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Conor Daly

1:10.3822

-

5

6

124.753

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

2

Josef Newgarden

1:10.4240

0.0418

5

5

124.679

Chevy

A

Team Penske

3

Will Power

1:10.5616

0.1794

5

6

124.436

Chevy

A

Team Penske

4

Pato O'Ward

1:10.6084

0.2262

5

6

124.353

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

5

Christian Lundgaard

1:10.7718

0.3896

5

7

124.066

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

6

Simon Pagenaud

1:10.7911

0.4089

5

6

124.033

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

7

Jack Harvey

1:10.8564

0.4742

6

6

123.918

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

8

Scott McLaughlin

1:10.9067

0.5245

5

7

123.830

Chevy

A

Team Penske

9

Graham Rahal

1:10.9093

0.5271

5

6

123.826

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

10

Callum Ilott

1:11.1195

0.7373

5

6

123.460

Chevy

A

Juncos Hollinger Racing

11

Kyle Kirkwood

1:11.2156

0.8334

5

6

123.293

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

12

Jimmie Johnson

1:11.7710

1.3888

7

7

122.339

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

 

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