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Qualifying report
IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis

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.

Pole sitter Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda and team celebrate their pole

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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