IndyCar completed its first oval qualifying session of the season midday Saturday, and it was Felix Rosenqvist who earned pole around the ultra-fast Texas Motor Speedway.
It is the second year in a row that the Swede has earned the top spot at Texas, and he earned his latest achievement by completing his two laps in 47.0708 seconds and an average speed of 220.264 MPH.
Rosenqvist’s two team-mates qualified remarkably well too, with Alexander Rossi earning the third position and Pato O’Ward earning the fifth starting spot.
READ MORE: IndyCar Texas – Qualifying Results
Arrow McLaren has certainly found a setup package that puts them nearly in a class above the rest of the field, which is not an easy feat with only limited adjustment options on a modern IndyCar.
Slotted into the outside of the first row will be Scott Dixon, who never quite seems to be very far from the top of timesheets. He was only slightly slower than Rosenqvist’s time, but he was below the 220 MPH milestone.
Josef Newgarden will start from the fourth position, and is the final driver that was able to top any of the McLaren times.
St. Petersburg winner, and current points leader, Marcus Ericsson qualified all the way down in the 16th position, partially on account of him taking his run last when the Texas sun had warmed the track considerably.
The extra downforce that IndyCar afforded all 28 entries seemed to work well, in that nobody got out of shape while cruising at over 220 MPH.
Drivers only reported a bit of understeer or oversteer when they got out of the car, and the most common complaint was simply that their laps were slow compared to those who nailed the setup.
That is, except for the RLL squad. The trio of drivers continued to have general setup issues that plagued them in the morning practice session, and all were nearly four miles per hour off the pace.
Graham Rahal is the highest placed of the three drivers, and was only able to complete the 24th best time as he struggled with balance for the second consecutive race.
Ed Carpenter Racing was also off the pace, with Conor Daly and Rinus VeeKay qualifying on the 13th row. The team’s owner and namesake Ed Carpenter qualified in 18th, and was not satisfied with his team’s result.
All drivers will head back on track in short order for a final qualifying session, then will return Sunday for the race itself.
