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David Malsher-Lopez

IndyCar Indy GP: Lundgaard beats Rosenqvist, Palou for first pole

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver took his first series pole with a 1m09.3321s on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

He topped Group 1 in the first part of qualifying with a 1m09.4639s before he was pipped to the top spot in Q2 by Arrow McLaren driver Alex Palou by 0.02s.

But progressing to the Fast Six, the Dane sealed his first series pole ahead of Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) and Palou.

Jack Harvey (RLL), Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Kyle Kirkwood, who scored his maiden win for Andretti Autosport in Long Beach last month, complete the top six.

Group 1’s Q1 session saw Lundgaard lead Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, with Rosenqvist third, as the field set banker laps on their primary Firestones.

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 for Meyer Shank Racing, a 1m10.2625, but this was swiftly eclipsed by Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden’s 1m09.8402s.

Then the times came in thick and fast, Armstrong hitting P1 before Lundgaard slammed in a 1m09.4639s ahead of the New Zealander and Will Power (Team Penske).

Felix Rosenqvist, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet (Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images)

Graham Rahal backed up Lundgaard’s form for RLL with second just ahead of Rosenqvist, 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.

Despite glowering skies over the Speedway, Group 2 also went out en masse on primaries and despite the harder rubber, O’Ward managed to deliver a brilliant 1m09.9279s, over three tenths clear of his nearest opponent.

That was Harvey, with Palou close behind. But the group seemed slow in re-emerging on reds, and the traffic started to stack up.

O’Ward delivered in fine style with a 1m09.2937s, ahead of team-mate 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.

Lundgaard swiftly got down to business on primaries in Q2 with a 1m10.3486s to shade O’Ward and Harvey. Then Rosenqvist went quickest before everyone stopped for reds.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images)

Out came Lundgaard with a 1m09.2282, only to see his time shaded by 0.02s by Palou. O’Ward and Rosenqvist were next up but their team-mate Alexander Rossi was bumped out.

Harvey made it a second RLL car in the Fast Six, but Rahal didn’t make it, while 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.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan sent Lundgaard and Harvey out on used reds, as did Arrow McLaren for 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 team-mate O’Ward, who nonetheless beat Kirkwood.

IndyCar Indy GP qualifying results:

Fast Six

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.3321     126.643
2 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 1'09.3348 0.0027 0.0027 126.638
3 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.3780 0.0459 0.0432 126.559
4 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.4220 0.0899 0.0440 126.479
5 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 1'09.5422 0.2101 0.1202 126.260
6 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 1'09.6292 0.2971 0.0870 126.102

Q2

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.2082     126.869
2 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.2282 0.0200 0.0200 126.833
3 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 1'09.3405 0.1323 0.1123 126.627
4 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 1'09.3604 0.1522 0.0199 126.591
5 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.3767 0.1685 0.0163 126.561
6 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 1'09.4131 0.2049 0.0364 126.495
7 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.4419 0.2337 0.0288 126.442
8 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.4711 0.2629 0.0292 126.389
9 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.4757 0.2675 0.0046 126.381
10 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 1'09.5471 0.3389 0.0714 126.251
11 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.6148 0.4066 0.0677 126.128
12 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 1'10.1872 0.9790 0.5724 125.100

Q1 Group 2

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 1'09.2937     126.713
2 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 1'09.4747 0.1810 0.1810 126.383
3 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.5351 0.2414 0.0604 126.273
4 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.6238 0.3301 0.0887 126.112
5 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 1'09.6277 0.3340 0.0039 126.105
6 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.6708 0.3771 0.0431 126.027
7 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 1'09.8375 0.5438 0.1667 125.726
8 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 1'09.9899 0.6962 0.1524 125.452
9 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 1'10.0747 0.7810 0.0848 125.301
10 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 1'10.2562 0.9625 0.1815 124.977
11 Ray Robb United States Dale Coyne Racing 1'10.2747 0.9810 0.0185 124.944
12 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 1'10.2920 0.9983 0.0173 124.913
13 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 1'10.3509 1.0572 0.0589 124.809
14 United States Santino Ferrucci United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'10.5879 1.2942 0.2370 124.390

Q1 Group 1

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.4639     126.402
2 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.5627 0.0988 0.0988 126.223
3 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 1'09.5838 0.1199 0.0211 126.185
4 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.6186 0.1547 0.0348 126.121
5 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 1'09.7835 0.3196 0.1649 125.823
6 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.8343 0.3704 0.0508 125.732
7 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 1'09.8402 0.3763 0.0059 125.721
8 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 1'09.8676 0.4037 0.0274 125.672
9 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 1'09.9625 0.4986 0.0949 125.502
10 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 1'10.2625 0.7986 0.3000 124.966
11 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 1'10.2669 0.8030 0.0044 124.958
12 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'10.5181 1.0542 0.2512 124.513
13 Argentina Agustin Canapino United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 1'10.5424 1.0785 0.0243 124.470
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