IndyCar’s exciting knockout qualifying took place Friday afternoon, with three rounds to decide who would start from pole for Saturday’s feature race.
Once drivers were whittled down to the last six competitors, they geared up for one last push as clouds rolled in and lowered track temperatures considerably.
Instead of fresh tires leading to the fastest times, it was each driver’s second or third push lap that proved to be the fastest. Some even commented that their tires never seemed to get to the ideal grip levels.
READ MORE: IndyCar IMS – Full Qualifying Results
At the end of the frantic final round round, it was the reigning series champion Alex Palou that was able to place his name at the top of the timesheets.
Palou completed his lap of the 2.44-mile course in 1:09.0004, nearly a tenth of a second ahead of those around him.
Christian Lundgaard, who has always done well at the IMS road course, was quick once again and put his #45 RLL Honda onto the front row.
Will Power looked like he might be able to increase his record pole count, but a power slide through the final corner instantly dashed those hopes.
He called out to his team that he was sorry before he even crossed the timing line, and had to settle for the third place starting position.
It was an all Team Penske second row, with Josef Newgarden claiming the fourth position on the grid.
Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon each made it to the final Fast Six round, but were not able to earn anything better than starting spots on the third row.s
Alexander Rossi just missed the Fast Six shootout by 0.02 seconds, placing him on the inside of row four for Saturday.
Each time Graham Rahal left his pit box, he needed assistance from his RLL crew in the form of a push to the rear wing to get moving.
His clutch issues did not prevent him from taking the track, and he was able to advance to the second round and secure the 11th starting position.
Scott McLaughlin just missed out on advancing to the second round by a few thousandths of a second, and admitted his car just didn’t have the pace to match his Team Penske team-mates further up the order.
Despite initially looking like he was going to challenge for a front row position, Felix Rosenqvist was knocked out in the second round and earned the tenth starting spot.
If the Swedish driver’s race pace is on par with what he’s shown the first few races of the season, he has a good chance of working his way up to podium contention in Saturday’s race.
Colton Herta had an unceremonious end to qualifying when his Andretti Global Honda ran out of fuel on his final lap. He will start Saturday’s race from 24th.
Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix takes place at 3:30 PM eastern time, with 85 laps for drivers to battle it out on the IMS road course.
