Written by Jake O'Callaghan, Edited by Dan Jones
The anticipation was high as the IndyCar field lined up to compete for pole in the Grand Prix of Monterey at the world-famous Laguna Seca circuit. Grid position at this track is one of the most crucial of the season, with the average starting position of the winner of this race being just 2.8. Most winners here start from the front row. This session was further complicated for the drivers as the track was newly-resurfaced, causing a lack of grip offline, which saw many incidents in practice.
Round 1, Group 1
The first group was interrupted with just over a minute to go when Ryan Hunter-Reay brought out the red flag after he spun and stalled at the final corner. Prior to the stoppage, rookie Juri Vips topped the session for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in only his second IndyCar weekend.
When the session restarted for one final run, it was Scott Dixon that set the timing screens ablaze. He topped the group, ahead of Grosjean, Vips, Ferrucci, Rosenqvist, and VeeKay. There were two major shocks in this session; with one being Santino Ferrucci breaking into the next round with what is usually a backmarker team in AJ Foyt Racing, the other being one of the favourites for the win on Sunday, Colton Herta, being bumped out in Round 1.
Elsewhere, Agustin Canapino recorded his best qualifying effort of 13th, whilst Marcus Ericsson was sad to miss out on the next round in his final qualifying with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Round 1, Group 2
The second group was similarly not without incidents, as in his final full-time weekend, Helio Castroneves dropped his car into the gravel at Turn 3 and brought out the red flags with just over seven minutes to go in the session, in an incident very similar to that of Pato O'Ward on Friday.
Following the restart, they ran green to the chequered flag, with Mexico’s Pato O’Ward taking top spot and recovering well after a massive crash in practice. Penske driver Scott McLaughlin finished behind in second, with Lundgaard, Newgarden, Palou, and Power also advancing.
The surprise of the session was RLL’s Graham Rahal, the driver that won the last two road course poles was knocked out after a mistake in his final run. Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood was also bumped after running into traffic in his final laps.
Fast 12
This session ran incident-free until after the chequered flag when O’Ward spun on his final lap and stalled at Turn 4. Christian Lundgaard was the only RLL car into the Fast Six, with a lap one tenth faster than anyone. Behind him was McLaughlin, Alex Palou, Rosenqvist, Dixon, and Newgarden. Juri Vips was bumped despite a solid lap - although the Estonian will drop a further six places due to an engine change.
Team Penske’s Will Power was also unable to transfer. We also saw Romain Grosjean getting knocked out, following with him voicing his displeasures with his team, a sight that has become quite common in the 2023 season.
Fast Six
A thrilling session to complete the final qualifying of the season, Felix Rosenqvist orchestrated an impressive upset, taking pole for the team he will be departing after this weekend. McLaren CEO Zak Brown was present to celebrate the achievement. Rosenqvist denied McLaughlin to pole, who interestingly finished second in each round of today’s qualifying. McLaughlin lost out by just one hundredth of a second.
In third is RLL’s Christian Lundgaard, who recovered to the second row after making a mistake and running wide at the Corkscrew, alongside him is Josef Newgarden in fourth. It is an all-Chip Ganassi third row with Scott Dixon and champion Alex Palou starting alongside each other. When the running was all completed, the previous lap record at Laguna Seca was smashed by comfortably over a second.
IndyCar Grand Prix of Monterey Qualifying Results
Felix Rosenqvist
Scott McLaughlin
Christian Lundgaard
Josef Newgarden
Scott Dixon
Alex Palou
Juri Vips (R)
Rinus VeeKay
Will Power
Romain Grosjean
Santino Ferrucci
Pato O’Ward
Agustin Canapino (R)
Graham Rahal
Colton Herta
Marcus Armstrong (R)
Alexander Rossi
Kyle Kirkwood
Marcus Ericsson
Callum Ilott
Tom Blomqvist (R)
David Malukas
Benjamin Pedersen (R)
Sting Ray Robb (R)
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Devlin DeFrancesco
Helio Castroneves