Felix Rosenqvist has taken pole for the Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis road course, besting Alexander Rossi by a large margin.
His lap of 1:10.2265 was over a quarter of a second faster than the next best time, which is quite a large gap for the ultra-competitive series.
The pole is the Swedish driver’s third of his career, and will give him a good chance at winning his second IndyCar event.
The result will also do well to help Rosenqvist’s case as he continues to be unsure if his future holds a continuation in the #7 entry or if he will be shuffled back to Formula E.
Rossi was quickest in the morning practice session, but was not quite able to earn pole as he was bested on the final push by his future team.
Pato O’Ward earned the third place starting position, showing that his team was able to find and correct the problem that had him very loose all through the earlier practice run.
Starting alongside him on the second row will be Will Power, as he looks to continue his strong season.
Josef Newgarden showed he has no ill effects from his crash and hospital stay this past week by qualifying in fifth, and he will line up alongside the rookie Christian Lundgaard who has done well here each time he has visited.
Alex Palou was a hair too slow to advance to the Fast 6 shootout, and will start from seventh while he tries to set aside his contract troubles for the weekend.
Jack Harvey missed out on advancing to the Top 12 by a mere 0.065 seconds, and will line up alongside rookie Devlin DeFrancesco on the sixth row.
Marcus Ericsson had mechanical troubles on his first outlap, and had to come to a stop on the back side of the course. The current points leader will have to start from the final row on Saturday as he looks to keep his narrow advantage.
The 85-lap race will start tomorrow at 12:30 PM Eastern Time, and will set the stage for the final stretch of the season.
| # | Drive | Time | Avg. Speed (MPH) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felix Rosenqvist | 01:10.2265 | 125.03 |
| 2 | Alexander Rossi | 01:10.5030 | 124.539 |
| 3 | Pato O’Ward | 01:10.6092 | 124.352 |
| 4 | Will Power | 01:10.6224 | 124.329 |
| 5 | Josef Newgarden | 01:10.6968 | 124.198 |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | 01:10.7280 | 124.143 |
| 7 | Alex Palou | 01:10.2074 | 125.064 |
| 8 | Rinus VeeKay | 01:10.3100 | 124.881 |
| 9 | Colton Herta | 01:10.3532 | 124.805 |
| 10 | Conor Daly | 01:10.5135 | 124.521 |
| 11 | David Malukas | 01:10.5636 | 124.432 |
| 12 | Simon Pagenaud | 01:10.7624 | 124.083 |
| 13 | Jack Harvey | 01:10.8564 | 123.918 |
| 14 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 01:10.7073 | 124.18 |
| 15 | Scott McLaughlin | 01:10.9067 | 123.83 |
| 16 | Helio Castroneves | 01:10.7560 | 124.094 |
| 17 | Graham Rahal | 01:10.9093 | 123.826 |
| 18 | Takuma Sato | 01:10.8276 | 123.969 |
| 19 | Callum Ilott | 01:11.1195 | 123.46 |
| 20 | Scott Dixon | 01:10.8938 | 123.853 |
| 21 | Kyle Kirkwood | 01:11.2156 | 123.293 |
| 22 | Romain Grosjean | 01:11.0244 | 123.625 |
| 23 | Jimmie Johnson | 01:11.7710 | 122.339 |
| 24 | Dalton Kellett | 01:12.0060 | 121.94 |
| 25 | Marcus Ericsson | No Time | 0 |
