IndyCar Indy RC: Graham Rahal takes first pole in six years

Rahal lapped in 1m10.1132s and will start ahead of team-mate Christian Lundgaard and Alexander Rossi of Arrow McLaren.

It wasn’t a great qualifying for championship frontrunners Alex Palou, who will start from the fifth row in ninth place, and Josef Newgarden, who will start down in 19^th after he failed to make it past Q1.

Fast Six qualifying

Devlin DeFrancesco set the early pace at 1m10.8193s but Lundgaard beat that with 1m10.5858s with the first lap of his second run. Rossi and Pato O’Ward then took turns at P1, before Lundgaard unleashed 1m10.2286s to wrest it back.

But Rahal wouldn’t be denied, producing 1m10.1132s for his first pole position in six years.

Lundgaard will start alongside him, ahead of the Arrow McLaren duo of Rossi and O’Ward, and the Andretti Autosport entries of DeFranceso and Romain Grosjean.

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	4	1'10.1132		125.232
2	C. Lundgaard Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	4	+0.1154	0.1154	125.026
3	A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	3	+0.1800	0.0646	124.911
4	P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	3	+0.2321	0.0521	124.819
5	D. DeFrancesco Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport	29	3	+0.2806	0.0485	124.733
6	R. Grosjean Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport	28	4	+0.2889	0.0083	124.718
View full results

Top 12 qualifying

Rahal grabbed the fastest lap on his final lap of the session with 1m09.9837s, ahead of Lundgaard, Rossi, Grosjean, O’Ward and DeFrancesco.

Falling at this hurdle were Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi), Jack Harvey (RLLR – who has a six-place grid penalty), Alex Palou (Ganassi), Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren), Scott McLaughlin (Penske) and Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing – who also has a six-place grid penalty).

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	6	1'09.9837		125.464
2	C. Lundgaard Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	6	+0.0240	0.0240	125.420
3	A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	5	+0.0287	0.0047	125.412
4	R. Grosjean Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport	28	7	+0.1649	0.1362	125.169
5	P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	6	+0.1666	0.0017	125.166
6	D. DeFrancesco Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport	29	5	+0.2261	0.0595	125.059
7	M. Armstrong Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	7	+0.2269	0.0008	125.058
8	J. Harvey Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	6	+0.2391	0.0122	125.036
9	A. Palou Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	7	+0.3137	0.0746	124.904
10	F. Rosenqvist Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren	6	6	+0.4552	0.1415	124.653
11	S. McLaughlin Scott McLaughlin Team Penske	3	6	+0.4945	0.0393	124.583
12	H. Castroneves Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing	06	5	+0.5370	0.0425	124.508
View full results

Group stage qualifying

In Group 1, DeFrancesco was fastest with a time of 1m10.2805s, ahead of Harvey, O’Ward, McLaughlin, Rossi and Rosenqvist.

But the big news was title contender Newgarden missing the cut, and he was only 10^th fastest.

Missing out were Colton Herta (Andretti), team-mate Kyle Kirkwood, Will Power (Penske) and team-mate Newgarden, Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) and the Dale Coyne Racing cars of David Malukas (who has a six-place grid penalty) and Sting Ray Robb.

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	D. DeFrancesco Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport	29	5	1'10.2805		124.934
2	J. Harvey Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	6	+0.0615	0.0615	124.824
3	P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	6	+0.0618	0.0003	124.824
4	S. McLaughlin Scott McLaughlin Team Penske	3	7	+0.1050	0.0432	124.747
5	A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	6	+0.1250	0.0200	124.712
6	F. Rosenqvist Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren	6	6	+0.1314	0.0064	124.701
7	C. Herta Colton Herta Andretti Autosport	26	6	+0.1593	0.0279	124.651
8	K. Kirkwood Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport	27	6	+0.2064	0.0471	124.568
9	W. Power Will Power Team Penske	12	7	+0.2432	0.0368	124.503
10	J. Newgarden Josef Newgarden Team Penske	2	7	+0.3345	0.0913	124.342
11	S. Ferrucci Santino Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	7	+0.3656	0.0311	124.287
12	D. Malukas David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing	18	6	+0.5882	0.2226	123.897
13	R. Robb Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing	51	7	+1.2853	0.6971	122.690
View full results

In Group 2, Lundgaard set the quickest time at 1m10.0031s from Rahal, Grosjean, Castroneves, Palou and Armstrong.

Making no further progress were Linus Lundqvist (MSR), Scott Dixon (Ganassi), Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino and Callum Ilott, and Benjamin Pedersen (Foyt).

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	C. Lundgaard Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	6	1'10.0031		125.429
2	G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	6	+0.2062	0.2062	125.060
3	R. Grosjean Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport	28	7	+0.3090	0.1028	124.878
4	H. Castroneves Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing	06	6	+0.3165	0.0075	124.864
5	A. Palou Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	8	+0.3627	0.0462	124.782
6	M. Armstrong Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	7	+0.3666	0.0039	124.775
7	L. Lundqvist Linus Lundqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	7	+0.4539	0.0873	124.621
8	S. Dixon Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	8	+0.4975	0.0436	124.544
9	M. Ericsson Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing	8	7	+0.6317	0.1342	124.307
10	R. van Kalmthout Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	7	+0.7218	0.0901	124.149
11	R. Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-Reay Ed Carpenter Racing	20	6	+1.0052	0.2834	123.653
12	A. Canapino Agustin Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78	6	+1.0580	0.0528	123.561
13	C. Ilott Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	6	+1.0996	0.0416	123.489
14	B. Pedersen Benjamin Pedersen A.J. Foyt Enterprises	55	7	+1.2940	0.1944	123.152
View full results