Alex Palou led throughout IndyCar’s first qualifying session featuring hybrid power but only narrowly beat Pato O’Ward to pole position at Mid-Ohio.
The Ganassi driver headed all three phases of qualifying he appeared in, and laid down a strong marker for provisional pole position at the end of the Fast Six session with a lap of 1’05.3511.O’Ward, however, had bought himself an extra run in the Fast Six by doing one fewer in the previous session. As he began his final lap after Palou’s he briefly dipped inside his rival’s sector times halfway around the lap.
But understeer through the final two corners appeared to put paid to his chances of improving overall. He fell short of Palou’s time at the line by just 0.0024 seconds.
David Malukas, who was originally due to be O’Ward’s team mate this year, produced a superb lap on his second appearance for Meyer Shank to claim third place on the grid. However he was the best part of three-tenths of a second slower than Palou around the resurfaced Mid-Ohio track. Colton Herta will join him on the second row of the grid.
Marcus Armstrong qualified fifth but his grid penalty for an engine change means he will fall to 11th. His relegation promotes Marcus Ericsson to fifth place. Scott McLaughlin, who missed the cut for the Fast Six by just two-hundredths of a second, will therefore start sixth.
Alexander Rossi also came within a tenth of a second of reaching the pole position shoot-out. He ended the Fast 12 in ninth place ahead of Christian Rasmussen. The Carpenter driver produced one of the surprises of the session by knocking out Felix Rosenqvist with the final lap of Group One. Christian Lundgaard, Linus Lundqvist and Romain Grosjean also progressed no further than the Fast 12 round.
Several front-runners fell in Group Two having been drawn against each other, including Penske team mates Josef Newgarden and Will Power, the latter after an error at turn four, and Scott Dixon.
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| Pos. | No. | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | Alex Palou | 1’05.3511 |
| 2 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | 1’05.3535 |
| 3 | 66 | David Malukas | 1’05.6509 |
| 4 | 26 | Colton Herta | 1’05.7653 |
| 5 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | 1’05.9402 |
| 6 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | 1’05.9592 |
| 7 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 1’05.6178 |
| 8 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | 1’05.6427 |
| 9 | 20 | Christian Rasmussen | 1’05.6911 |
| 10 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | 1’05.7705 |
| 11 | 8 | Linus Lundqvist | 1’05.7805 |
| 12 | 77 | Romain Grosjean | 1’05.7822 |
| 13 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1’05.6921 |
| 14 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1’05.8562 |
| 15 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | 1’05.7147 |
| 16 | 12 | Will Power | 1’05.9654 |
| 17 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | 1’05.7679 |
| 18 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 1’05.9857 |
| 19 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 1’05.8508 |
| 20 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | 1’06.0252 |
| 21 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | 1’05.9414 |
| 22 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | 1’06.0550 |
| 23 | 30 | Pietro Fittipaldi | 1’06.0973 |
| 24 | 4 | Kyffin Simpson | 1’06.1034 |
| 25 | 51 | Toby Sowery | 1’08.2499 |
| 26 | 41 | Sting Robb | 1’06.6894 |
| 27 | 18 | Jack Harvey | 1’06.9614 |
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Nick T.
6th July 2024, 23:06
How exciting. They’re not a quieter, less accomplished version of F1 and lost one of their positive differentiators. And they spent a whole lot of money to pretend to be green despite none of their fans or even the media caring.
Nick T.
6th July 2024, 23:08
They’re now*
[plz introduce editing or edit for me]
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
7th July 2024, 6:59
My understanding is that they are not quieter. Though I have not heard them (via the TV) myself as yet.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
7th July 2024, 6:59
Just to clarify in light of OP’s edit. I did indeed mean ‘not’.
Damon (@damon)
7th July 2024, 9:43
What do you mean “quiter”. They have the same IC engines that make the same noise. Nothing is quiter.
All they added is an electric dynamo that gives them 5 sec. of 60 additional bhp a lap and additional breaking power.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
7th July 2024, 9:47
Well, the entire state of Indycar under Penske is a (word this site doesn’t allow). Nothing exciting about adding half a second of (almost) 60HP to a 15 year old v6 design.
That they could achieve just running at 13 000 rpm instead of 12. Or not running on 100% ethanol. Or add a tick or two turbo boost.
Don
7th July 2024, 14:28
They don’t sound ANY different, which is good. Same engine with a 60 HP electric boost that can be simultaneously used with push to pass for a 120 HP increase. It’s a very unique system due to the lack of space, using super capacitors rather than batteries. The big news is that they can re-start if stalled, avoiding cautions. It’s happening because the manufacturers want it, like in F1 and IMSA.