IndyCar GP Indy: Lundgaard beats Rosenqvist, Palou for first pole
Christian Lundgaard delivered the lap of his life to snatch pole position on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the venue where he made his debut, while Felix Rosenqvist makes it an all-Scandinavian front row.
Fast Six
Rahal Letterman Lanigan sent Lundgaard and Jack Harvey out on used reds, as did Arrow McLaren for Felix Rosenqvist, and Harvey went top with a 1m09.4220s.
Kirkwood’s first flyer took him into third, but it was Lundgaard who moved to the top with a 1m09.3321s. Palou slotted in behind, 0.0459s adrift but ahead of Harvey. Rosenqvist had a strong shot but wiggled hard out of Turn 9 and came up 0.0027s short of Lundgaard’s benchmark. Still, he was two-tenths ahead of teammate Pato O’Ward, who nonetheless beat Kirkwood.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Tire |
Team |
1 |
Christian Lundgaard |
1:09.3321 |
1:09.3321 |
3 |
4 |
126.643 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
2 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
1:09.3348 |
0.0027 |
3 |
3 |
126.638 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
3 |
Alex Palou |
1:09.3780 |
0.0459 |
3 |
3 |
126.559 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
4 |
Jack Harvey |
1:09.4220 |
0.0899 |
1 |
4 |
126.479 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
5 |
Pato O'Ward |
1:09.5422 |
0.2101 |
3 |
3 |
126.260 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
6 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
1:09.6292 |
0.2971 |
2 |
2 |
126.102 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
Q2
Christian Lundgaard swiftly got down to business on primaries with a 1m10.3486s to shade Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren and his own teammate Jack Harvey. Then Felix Rosenqvist’s McLaren went quickest before everyone stopped for reds.
Out came Lundgaard with a 1m09.2282, only to see his time shaded by 0.02s by Alex Palou. O’Ward and Rosenqvist were next up but their teammate Alexander Rossi was bumped out. Jack Harvey made it a second RLL car in the Fast Six, but Graham Rahal didn’t make it. Kyle Kirkwood snatched sixth for Andretti Autosport.
Three of the four Ganassi cars were eliminated, as was Will Power who made a big mistake under braking at Turn 7 on his flyer. Despite starting from 12th tomorrow, he’ll roll off as highest-placed Penske driver.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Tire |
Team |
1 |
Alex Palou |
1:09.2082 |
1:09.2082 |
5 |
6 |
126.869 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
2 |
Christian Lundgaard |
1:09.2282 |
0.0200 |
5 |
6 |
126.833 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
3 |
Pato O'Ward |
1:09.3405 |
0.1323 |
4 |
5 |
126.627 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
4 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
1:09.3604 |
0.1522 |
5 |
5 |
126.591 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
5 |
Jack Harvey |
1:09.3767 |
0.1685 |
6 |
6 |
126.561 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
6 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
1:09.4131 |
0.2049 |
6 |
6 |
126.495 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
7 |
Marcus Ericsson |
1:09.4419 |
0.2337 |
6 |
6 |
126.442 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
8 |
Graham Rahal |
1:09.4711 |
0.2629 |
6 |
6 |
126.389 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
9 |
Scott Dixon |
1:09.4757 |
0.2675 |
6 |
6 |
126.381 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
10 |
Alexander Rossi |
1:09.5471 |
0.3389 |
5 |
6 |
126.251 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
11 |
Marcus Armstrong |
1:09.6148 |
0.4066 |
6 |
6 |
126.128 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
12 |
Will Power |
1:10.1872 |
0.9790 |
6 |
6 |
125.100 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
Q1 Group 2
Despite glowering skies over the Speedway, Group 2 also went out en masse on primaries and despite the harder rubber, Pato O’Ward managed to deliver a brilliant 1m09.9279s, over three tenths clear of his nearest opponent. That was Jack Harvey, with Alex Palou close behind. But the group seemed tardy in re-emerging on reds, and the traffic started to stack up.
O’Ward delivered in fine style with a 1m09.2937s, ahead of teammate Alexander Rossi, chased by Palou, Harvey, Kyle Kirkwood and Scott Dixon. Surprisingly, Kirkwood was the only Andretti car through, while Scott McLaughlin also failed to advance.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Tire |
Team |
1 |
Pato O'Ward |
1:09.2937 |
1:09.2937 |
5 |
5 |
126.713 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
2 |
Alexander Rossi |
1:09.4747 |
0.1810 |
5 |
6 |
126.383 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
3 |
Alex Palou |
1:09.5351 |
0.2414 |
6 |
7 |
126.273 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
4 |
Jack Harvey |
1:09.6238 |
0.3301 |
5 |
6 |
126.112 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
5 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
1:09.6277 |
0.3340 |
6 |
6 |
126.105 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
6 |
Scott Dixon |
1:09.6708 |
0.3771 |
6 |
7 |
126.027 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
7 |
Colton Herta |
1:09.8375 |
0.5438 |
5 |
6 |
125.726 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian |
8 |
Scott McLaughlin |
1:09.9899 |
0.6962 |
6 |
7 |
125.452 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
9 |
Romain Grosjean |
1:10.0747 |
0.7810 |
7 |
8 |
125.301 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Autosport |
10 |
David Malukas |
1:10.2562 |
0.9625 |
6 |
6 |
124.977 |
Honda |
A |
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
11 |
Sting Ray Robb |
1:10.2747 |
0.9810 |
5 |
6 |
124.944 |
Honda |
A |
Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
12 |
Callum Ilott |
1:10.2920 |
0.9983 |
6 |
6 |
124.913 |
Chevy |
A |
Juncos Hollinger Racing |
13 |
Helio Castroneves |
1:10.3509 |
1.0572 |
3 |
3 |
124.809 |
Honda |
A |
Meyer Shank Racing |
14 |
Santino Ferrucci |
1:10.5879 |
1.2942 |
4 |
4 |
124.390 |
Chevy |
A |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
Q1 Group 1
On banker laps on primary Firestones, Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan led Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, with Felix Rosenqvist third. With less than five minutes to go, everyone ducked into the pits to grab a set of the softer alternates.
Simon Pagenaud was the first to lay a strong lap on these reds, a 1m10.2625, but this was swiftly eclipsed by Josef Newgarden’s 1m09.8402s. Then the times came in thick and fast, Marcus Armstrong hitting P1 before Lundgaard slammed in a 1m09.4639s ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Will Power.
Graham Rahal backed up Lundgaard’s form for RLL with second just ahead of Rosenqvist’s Arrow McLaren, Armstrong, Power and Marcus Ericsson.
One surprise elimination was Newgarden, whose cause wasn’t helped by a spin for Benjamin Pedersen up ahead of him, while Ed Carpenter Racing, a team that has won on this course, were also eliminated.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Tire |
Team |
1 |
Christian Lundgaard |
1:09.4639 |
1:09.4639 |
6 |
6 |
126.402 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
2 |
Graham Rahal |
1:09.5627 |
0.0988 |
6 |
6 |
126.223 |
Honda |
A |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
3 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
1:09.5838 |
0.1199 |
6 |
6 |
126.185 |
Chevy |
A |
Arrow McLaren |
4 |
Marcus Armstrong |
1:09.6186 |
0.1547 |
5 |
6 |
126.121 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
5 |
Will Power |
1:09.7835 |
0.3196 |
6 |
7 |
125.823 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
6 |
Marcus Ericsson |
1:09.8343 |
0.3704 |
7 |
7 |
125.732 |
Honda |
A |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
7 |
Josef Newgarden |
1:09.8402 |
0.3763 |
6 |
6 |
125.721 |
Chevy |
A |
Team Penske |
8 |
Devlin DeFrancesco |
1:09.8676 |
0.4037 |
6 |
7 |
125.672 |
Honda |
A |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
9 |
Rinus VeeKay |
1:09.9625 |
0.4986 |
4 |
5 |
125.502 |
Chevy |
A |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
10 |
Simon Pagenaud |
1:10.2625 |
0.7986 |
5 |
7 |
124.966 |
Honda |
A |
Meyer Shank Racing |
11 |
Conor Daly |
1:10.2669 |
0.8030 |
5 |
6 |
124.958 |
Chevy |
A |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
12 |
Benjamin Pedersen |
1:10.5181 |
1.0542 |
6 |
6 |
124.513 |
Chevy |
A |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
13 |
Agustin Canapino |
1:10.5424 |
1.0785 |
6 |
6 |
124.470 |
Chevy |
A |
Juncos Holling Racing |
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