Grand Prix of Portland: Rosenqvist roars to second pole position of the season
- Evan Roberts
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
After a three-week break, IndyCar has officially entered the business end of the schedule. Five weekends, six races and only one Champion will be crowned.
Felix Rosenqvist started the closing stretch in the best possible way as he put his Meyer Shank Racing car on Pole Position, his first since Long Beach earlier in the season. In second was Drivers' Championship leader Alex Palou and third was Will Power.
Qualifying Group 1
As the first cars hit the track in the blazing Portland sun, strategies were split between those using Primary and Alternate tyres. As expected those on the softer tyres, led by Kyffin Simpson, were quickest after the opening runs. Surprisingly, they were not a huge margin from those on the hard tyres led by Palou, who was mixing it up with the soft runners in the first part of the session.
As ever though, the end of the session is where it counts. As the timing screens went to green and the positions changed around the board, it was winner of the two previous Portland Pole Position's in Will Power who topped the opening session. Joining him in the next phase would be Palou, David Malukas, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean and Simpson.
Some notable drivers to have missed out on advancing from an incredibly close session included Josef Newgarden, who for the first time since the Indianapolis 500 has been able to use his left foot for braking. Pato O'Ward and Marcus Armstrong were other absentees who failed to live up to the pace shown in practice sessions earlier in the day.
Qualifying Group 2
For the second qualifying group there was a similarly equal split between drivers on the harder and soft tyre. Despite drivers like O'Ward ruing what he believed was a mistake to not run a soft-soft strategy most of the favourites within the group opted for the riskier hard-soft route. One driver who did not was Scott Dixon who topped the early stages of the session.
When it came to crunch time it was one of those whose decision to run the riskier strategy in Rosenqvist who would top the session. Joining him was Dixon, Kyle Kirkwood, Graham Rahal, Rinus VeeKay and Dennis Hauger.
The surprise of the session here was Christian Lundgaard. The Dane, who has claimed two road course wins this season had a terrible session full of technical hiccups which meant he had no hybrid for the second half of the session. It seemed a Arrow McLaren-wide issue in this occasion however as Nolan Siegel also being eliminated marked a horrible day for McLaren.
Fast 12
Of the drivers who made the Fast 12, 10 of those were Hondas. The only two Chevrolet powered cars were of VeeKay and Malukas. What this meant was an overwhelming number of teammates battling amongst eachother to reach the final stage of qualifying. All three Chip Ganassi Racing cars, all three Andretti's and both Dale Coynes were contesting.
In the ever complicated qualifying tyre strategies, this session was far more simple. Ericsson was the only driver to utilise the harder tyres for the opening run where he surprisingly was not even last. Topping the early runs was Palou who was closely followed by Rosenqvist, the Top Five separated by less than a tenth.
One team who seemed to forget the memo was Dale Coyne who sent Grosjean out on his only fresh set of softs on the opening run which left the unaware Frenchman stunned when he found out over the team radio.
With a mixed up order, chaos was expected. An unusual mistake by Dixon who clipped the inside wall in Turn One. He was not the first driver this weekend to make that mistake, but it was one that cost him a chance of advancing as he finished bottom of the group.
At the top of the time sheets was yet again Rosenqvist who boated nearly half a tenth gap to his nearest competitor in VeeKay. Behind the Dutchman came Simpson, Ericsson, Palou and Power who rounded out those to have qualified for the Fast 6 in spectacular style having had a major moment nearly careering onto the grass going through the fast Turn 5. A sign of superb pace from the Australian considering how closely contested the session was.
Malukas was one of the eliminated drivers as he finished the session in ninth. He will not start there however, as a six-place grid penalty sees him dropping to 15th for the start.
Fast 6
In a condensed final group, the smaller opening segment saw Palou point the way by over a tenth. Once more the timing tower turned green and Palou was on top once more and despite challenges from competitors such as Ericsson and Power in the Andretti Globals, it looked to be Palou's to lose.
That was until a blinding lap by Indianapolis 500 champion Rosenqvist saw the Swede pip Palou to Pole, spoiling the Spaniard's party. It is Rosenqvist's second Pole Position of the season and was achieved in style as he topped every single of his qualifying groups.
Third was Power, who made another compromising mistake that saw him drop time as he spun up his rear tyres coming out of the final corner before the timing line. A mistake that likely cost him Pole as the loss was around a tenth, far more than what he would have needed to top the session.
Starting Grid
Rosenqvist
Palou
Power
Ericsson
VeeKay
Simpson
Kirkwood
Rahal
Hauger
Grosjean
Dixon
Foster
McLaughlin
Newgarden
Malukas
Siegel
O'Ward
Collet
Rossi
Rasmussen
Armstrong
Ferrucci
Schumacher
Robb
Lundgaard
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