O’Ward on pole as Lundgaard impresses with fourth on debut

IndyCar

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Eager to bounce back after a difficult weekend on the streets of Nashville, Patricio O’Ward claimed his third pole position of the season on Friday evening at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. O’Ward was able to pass through the first round into the Fast 12 session, and with his final flying lap, he took his fourth career IndyCar pole position with a best lap of 1’10.715.

O’Ward will share the front row for Saturday afternoon’s 85 lap race with Will Power, who qualified in second position, just 0.0067 seconds behind O’Ward. Romain Grosjean, who won pole at the IMS road course back in May, qualified in third place.

Alpine Academy prospect Christian Lundgaard is putting together an impressive debut weekend in the IndyCar Series. The 20-year-old rookie qualified fourth fastest, after finishing in seventh in free practice earlier in the day. In contrast, his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team mates Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal were only able to qualify 15th and 16th, respectively.

Colton Herta will start fifth as he looks seeks redemption for his crash in Nashville, while championship leader Álex Palou qualified sixth. Jack Harvey, Conor Daly, May race winner Rinus VeeKay, and Alexander Rossi complete the top ten from qualifying, ahead of last weekend’s Music City Grand Prix winner Marcus Ericsson in 11th.

Two of the top five drivers in the championship will start deep in the field tomorrow. Josef Newgarden already faced a six place grid penalty following an unapproved engine change after Nashville. After failing to advance out of the first round of qualifying, the Penske driver will start 20th.

Defending series champion Scott Dixon spun on the final corner of his last flying lap in round one, causing a yellow flag which stripped him of his fastest time – leaving him down in 26th.

The green flag for the IndyCar Series’ second race at the IMS road course is scheduled to fly at 6:00pm BST.

Qualifying results

PositionCarDriverTeamEngine
15Patricio O’WardMcLaren SPChevrolet
212Will PowerPenskeChevrolet
351Romain GrosjeanCoyne/RWRHonda
445Christian LundgaardRLLHonda
526Colton HertaAndrettiHonda
610Alex PalouGanassiHonda
760Jack HarveyMeyer ShankHonda
820Conor DalyCarpenterChevrolet
921Rinus VeeKayCarpenterChevrolet
1027Alexander RossiAndrettiHonda
118Marcus EricssonGanassiHonda
1222Simon PagenaudPenskeChevrolet
1328Ryan Hunter-ReayAndrettiHonda
1414Sebastien BourdaisFoytChevrolet
1530Takuma SatoRLLHonda
1615Graham RahalRLLHonda
1718Ed JonesCoyne/VasserHonda
1859Max ChiltonCarlinChevrolet
197Felix RosenqvistMcLaren SPChevrolet
202Josef NewgardenPenskeChevrolet
213Scott McLaughlinPenskeChevrolet
2248Jimmie JohnsonGanassiHonda
236Helio CastronevesMeyer ShankHonda
2429James HinchcliffeAndretti SteinbrennerHonda
2575RC EnersonTop GunChevrolet
269Scott DixonGanassiHonda
2752Cody WareCoyne/RWRHonda
284Dalton KellettFoytChevrolet

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Author information

RJ O'Connell
Motorsport has been a lifelong interest for RJ, both virtual and ‘in the carbon’, since childhood. RJ picked up motorsports writing as a hobby...

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4 comments on “O’Ward on pole as Lundgaard impresses with fourth on debut”

  1. The first 5 drivers in the same tenth of a second! And only 0.2s separating the top-8.
    This is gonna be spectacular! :)

    1 1:10.714 Pato O’Ward
    2 1:10.721 Will Power
    3 1:10.741 Romain Grosjean
    4 1:10.743 Christian Lundgaard
    5 1:10.763 Colton Herta
    6 1:10.829 Alex Palou
    7 1:10.887 Jack Harvey
    8 1:10.953 Conor Daly

    @Keith_Collantine
    It would be nice if the site provided IndyCar’s current standing and calendar the way it does for F1. Although the name had changed, it still functions as F1Fanatic as far as information provided is concerned.

    1. Insanely close! It will be very interesting to see what happens today.

    2. Well…It wasn’t . The IMS road course, reconfigured as it is, just doesn’t promote great racing.

  2. Any chance of watching indycar in UK? Even if highlights?

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