Just 21 months after he made his IndyCar debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grand prix circuit, Christian Lundgaard has won his pole position in the series for Saturday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix.
Lundgaard reached the Fast Six stage of qualifying for the first time this year in the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park, and with 75 seconds left in qualifying, he took provisional pole with a time of 1’09.332.On his final flying lap, Felix Rosenqvist strung together fast first and second sectors and was tracking towards pole for himself. But at turn eight his car got unstable, and a scruffy run through the S-curves was enough to deny Rosenqvist the pole position by three milliseconds.
That secured an all-Scandinavian front row led by the Dane Lundgaard, with Sweden’s Rosenqvist starting in second place. Alex Palou, who was fastest in this morning’s practice session, qualified in third place.
Lundgaard’s maiden pole position was made even better by the fact that all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars advanced to the second round of qualifying. Jack Harvey made the Fast Six for the first time in two years, qualifying fourth. Graham Rahal narrowly missed putting all three RLL cars in the Fast Six as he qualified in eighth.
Pato O’Ward was fifth-fastest and will share the third row with Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood in sixth.
IndyCar championship points leader Marcus Ericsson will start seventh alongside Rahal, with Scott Dixon in ninth. Alexander Rossi, who won last year’s Brickyard Grand Prix at this venue, in tenth place.
Marcus Armstrong was the fastest rookie once again in 11th, while five-time Indy GP course winner Will Power will start down in 12th place – as the only Team Penske driver that advanced out of the first round of qualifying.
Bad timing caught out Josef Newgarden in the first group: He caught a spinning Benjamin Pedersen at turn one and had to abort his final flying lap. Newgarden, who won the Texas Motor Speedway race, starts 13th tomorrow.
Several big names just missed out on advancing into the second group, including Colton Herta in 14th and Scott McLaughlin in 16th. Romain Grosjean, who’d made the Fast Six in every road and street course race so far, was livid after his Q1 ejection, and will start a lowly 18th.
Herta will start from the same place where he won last year’s Indy GP in May, which was an affair of wildly changing weather conditions. The start of tomorrow’s race – the first big event of the Month of May at Indianapolis – is scheduled for Saturday at 8:30 PM BST.
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Indianapolis Grand Prix qualifying results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | RLL | Honda |
| 2 | 6 | Felix Rosenqvist | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 3 | 10 | Alex Palou | Ganassi | Honda |
| 4 | 30 | Jack Harvey | RLL | Honda |
| 5 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 6 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti | Honda |
| 7 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | Ganassi | Honda |
| 8 | 15 | Graham Rahal | RLL | Honda |
| 9 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi | Honda |
| 10 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 11 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | Ganassi | Honda |
| 12 | 12 | Will Power | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 13 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 14 | 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti | Honda |
| 15 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti | Honda |
| 16 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 17 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 18 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti | Honda |
| 19 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 20 | 18 | David Malukas | Coyne/HMD | Honda |
| 21 | 20 | Conor Daly | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 22 | 51 | Sting Ray Robb | Coyne/RWR | Honda |
| 23 | 55 | Benjamin Pedersen | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 24 | 77 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 25 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 26 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 27 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | Foyt | Chevrolet |
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Don
13th May 2023, 16:10
He did a great job! Hopefully he can now win his first race so he can shave his mustache (if you call it that) off as promised.