Palou grabs pole in Grand Prix of Road America Qualifying
Chip Ganassi Racing's Álex Palou took a stunning pole position in IndyCar qualifying at Road America ahead of Team Penske's David Malukas and Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong.
Group 1
The first 12 drivers headed out on track to begin qualifying at Road America on a balmy Friday afternoon, Team Penske's Josef Newgarden the early pacesetter of the group. His teammate Malukas sat behind him, with Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson in third.
With only the top six drivers of this session set to advance to the next segment of qualifying, Felix Rosenqvist in seventh was the top driver at risk of elimination. Then Rosenqvist and his teammate Armstrong went first and second respectively, before Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard stole the top spot.
All three drivers in IndyCar's rookie class were taking part in Group 1, and two of them, Caio Collet and Dennis Hauger, went third and fourth with seven minutes to go. Mick Schumacher, the third rookie, sat down in eighth and was in danger of elimination.
With just one minute to go, Malukas was on top with a fastest time of 1:43.6382s, the fastest time of the weekend so far. Rosenqvist was second, and Collet jumped back up to reclaim third position. Then it was Armstrong reclaiming second place as Ericsson was bumped down to seventh as a result.
Nolan Siegel came up to fourth as Collet jumped up to an impressive second, breaking his way through into the Fast 12. Ericsson and Rosenqvist were the final drivers to make it through, as Lundgaard was eliminated.
Newgarden, still nursing an injury from the Indy 500 last month, finished eighth in Group 1, ahead of Hauger, Kyffin Simpson, Alex Rossi and Schumacher.
Group 2
Group 2 was up next, and the rest of the grid was ready to fight for a chance to progress to the Fast 12.
With one McLaren driver already in and one eliminated, all eyes looked to Pato O'Ward to see how the third McLaren would fare. O'Ward held the top spot early on in the session, setting a lap time of 1:45.8346s. But soon the championship leader Palou was able to set a time in the 1:44s range and went to the top ahead of Graham Rahal.
About halfway through the session, Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen led the group, Santino Ferruci and Palou behind him. Rahal was the driver on the bubble in seventh place, with double Scotts (Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin) behind. O'Ward, still looking for his first podium of the season, sat down in 12th.
With two minutes left, drivers started their final flying laps. Andretti's Will Power was able to jump up to first place, faster than anyone in his group but still over a tenth down on Malukas' time from Group 1.
Palou then went two tenths fast than Malukas, topping Group 2 with a time fast enough to put him first in both groups, as McLaughlin and O'Ward went to third and fourth respectively. Ferrucci maintained fifth place, while Romain Grosjean was able to jump up to sixth in the final moments before Dixon jumped ahead of him on his final lap.
So Grosjean was the top eliminated driver with a seventh place finish, Rasmussen, Kyle Kirkwood, Rahal, Rinus VeeKay, Louis Foster and Sting Ray Robb the final drivers eliminated from qualifying.
Fast 12
The top six drivers from both sessions headed out on track, looking for a chance to make it into the Fast 6 and fight for pole position. Unsuprisingly, O'Ward and Palou set the pace for the group. More surprisingly, O'Ward's McLaren teammate Siegel then went fastest, setting a time of 1:44.6335s to go ahead of his teammate and Palou.
But Palou came back and went to the top again as McLaughlin jumped up to third, O'Ward, Armstrong and Dixon rounding out the top six. Then Collet jumped to fifth and knocked Dixon into the elimination zone.
The timing sheet remained stagnant for a while, until Dixon jumped up to third, but his place wasn't secure as Rosenqvist, Ericsson, McLaughlin and Siegel all improved and relegated Dixon right back outside the top six.
The Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) pairing of Rosenqvist and Armstrong continued to be strong but no one could top Malukas, who went first in the group with a lap time of 1:43.6520s. Palou finished behind the MSR drivers, and Ericsson and McLaughlin were the final drivers to make it through to the Fast 6.
Ferrucci finished best of the rest in seventh, with Siegel, Collet and O'Ward behind him. The veterans Power and Dixon rounded out the top 12.
Fast 6
McLaughlin was the first driver to set a lap time in the final session of qualifying, locking in a banker lap time of 1:46.2456s. The other five drivers were out and setting their first fast laps of the session with just three minutes to go, opting to wait longer.
Rosenqvist, Palou, Armstrong and Ericsson all set their fast laps and came out in that order behind McLaughlin, before Malukas' first lap put him up to fourth.
Palou was the only driver able to get back into the 1:43s range, jumping to the top ahead of Armstrong before Malukas went to second place. Rosenqvist was in fourth, Ericsson fifth, while McLaughlin dropped down to sixth.
So Palou will start tomorrow's race from first place, with Team Penske's Malukas behind him and the MSR pair behind them. The race will begin at 13:20 local time in Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon.
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