Firestone Fast Six
Will Power and Pato O’Ward set banker laps on Firestone primaries, whereas Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi and Christian Lundgaard immediately emerged from the pits on reds. That meant Rossi initially went to the top with a 70.6775sec lap ahead of Lundgaard and Newgarden.
Rosenqvist did only a sighting lap on primaries, then sat in the pits until the final three minutes of the session, and then emerged on reds that had only one flyer on them from Q1 to produce a 70.2265sec lap. That was over a quarter second better than his closest opposition, Rossi, and 0.38sec faster than teammate O’Ward.
Power led the Penske charge in fourth, just 0.0744sec ahead of Newgarden, with Lundgaard completing the top six for Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:10.2265 | - | 2 | 2 | 125.030 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 2 | Alexander Rossi | 1:10.5030 | 0.2765 | 3 | 3 | 124.539 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 3 | Pato O'Ward | 1:10.6092 | 0.3827 | 3 | 3 | 124.352 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 4 | Will Power | 1:10.6224 | 0.3959 | 3 | 3 | 124.329 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 5 | Josef Newgarden | 1:10.6968 | 0.4703 | 3 | 3 | 124.198 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:10.7280 | 0.5015 | 1 | 2 | 124.143 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
Q2
Colton Herta was fastest driver on primaries, turning a 71.3913sec lap – 0.28sec faster than Alex Palou – before ducking into the pitlane to collect his alternates. On the softer rubber, Felix Rosenqvist initially set the benchmark with a 70.0781sec, and then Will Power shaded him by 0.0504sec, and Newgarden moved to third.
The driver who topped morning practice, Alexander Rossi, became the only Andretti Autosport driver to make it through, as Herta’s car looked too tail happy on the Firestone alternates. O’Ward made it two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets in the top six, despite his earlier complaints about the handling, and Christian Lundgaard produced arguably the most encouraging flying lap of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s season, to wind up just 0.15sec behind Power.
Ganassi’s Palou came up 0.027sec short of the Fast Six, but was still fast enough to beat the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevys.
David Malukas was disappointed to discover he had major front brake issues by the time he strapped on the reds, so his lap time, only half a second off Power, was very creditable.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Will Power | 1:10.0277 | - | 5 | 5 | 125.385 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 2 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:10.0781 | 0.0504 | 5 | 6 | 125.294 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 3 | Josef Newgarden | 1:10.1156 | 0.0879 | 5 | 6 | 125.227 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | 1:10.1295 | 0.1018 | 5 | 6 | 125.203 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 5 | Pato O'Ward | 1:10.1574 | 0.1297 | 5 | 5 | 125.153 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:10.1805 | 0.1528 | 5 | 6 | 125.112 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 7 | Alex Palou | 1:10.2074 | 0.1797 | 6 | 7 | 125.064 | Honda | A | |
| 8 | 1:10.3100 | 0.2823 | 5 | 6 | 124.881 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing | |
| 9 | Colton Herta | 1:10.3532 | 0.3255 | 6 | 6 | 124.805 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian |
| 10 | 1:10.5135 | 0.4858 | 5 | 6 | 124.521 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing | |
| 11 | David Malukas | 1:10.5636 | 0.5359 | 4 | 5 | 124.432 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
| 12 | 1:10.7624 | 0.7347 | 5 | 5 | 124.083 | Honda | A |
Q1 Group 2
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson was massively unlucky to be asked by his engineer to shut down his car, as they saw data that they didn’t like during his out lap, because that brought out the red flag, the cancelation of his two best laps (obviously a moot point) and thus consigning him to the back of the grid.
Because of the red flag, the drivers filed into pitlane and unanimously switched to Firestone reds. Alex Palou was the first driver in the group to deliver a 70sec lap, a 70.5330, but this was swiftly eclipsed by Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP, Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing.
Still Palou held on to be the only Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda to escape Q1, as Scott Dixon couldn’t find a clear lap while on reds. Alexander Rossi – fastest in practice this morning – was able to advance. Rookie David Malukas outpaced his teammate Takuma Sato to put the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports into Q2.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:10.1220 | - | 4 | 4 | 125.216 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 2 | Colton Herta | 1:10.1641 | 0.0421 | 3 | 3 | 125.141 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian |
| 3 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:10.1821 | 0.0601 | 4 | 5 | 125.109 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 4 | Alex Palou | 1:10.3786 | 0.2566 | 4 | 5 | 124.760 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 5 | Alexander Rossi | 1:10.3844 | 0.2624 | 3 | 4 | 124.749 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 6 | David Malukas | 1:10.6239 | 0.5019 | 4 | 5 | 124.326 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
| 7 | 1:10.7073 | 0.5853 | 3 | 4 | 124.180 | Honda | A | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | |
| 8 | 1:10.7560 | 0.6340 | 3 | 4 | 124.094 | Honda | A | Meyer Shank Racing | |
| 9 | Takuma Sato | 1:10.8276 | 0.7056 | 4 | 5 | 123.969 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
| 10 | Scott Dixon | 1:10.8938 | 0.7718 | 3 | 4 | 123.853 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 11 | 1:11.0244 | 0.9024 | 4 | 5 | 123.625 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport | |
| 12 | 1:12.0060 | 1.8840 | 3 | 5 | 121.940 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises | |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | No Time | --- | -- | --- | --- | Honda | P | Chip Ganassi Racing |
Q1 Group 1
Rahal Letterman Langian-Honda’s Christian Lundgaard was the fastest driver on Firestone’s primary rubber in this first group, running a 71.4399sec, almost three-tenths faster than Callum Ilott who yesterday was confirmed as remaining at Juncos Hollinger Racing-Cherolet
With everyone onto the Firestone alternate rubber, and Lundgaard delivered a 70.7718s, but was eclipsed by Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Josef Newgarden, and then Conor Daly produced fastest time for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, to jump Newgarden and Will Power.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP wrestled his car into the top six, despite complaining of its handling. Lundgaard, on the track where he made his IndyCar debut last year, was able to progress to Q2, but his teammates Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal would progress no further, and Scott McLaughlin in the third Penske was also left outside.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Conor Daly | 1:10.3822 | - | 5 | 6 | 124.753 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 2 | Josef Newgarden | 1:10.4240 | 0.0418 | 5 | 5 | 124.679 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 3 | Will Power | 1:10.5616 | 0.1794 | 5 | 6 | 124.436 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 4 | Pato O'Ward | 1:10.6084 | 0.2262 | 5 | 6 | 124.353 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 5 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:10.7718 | 0.3896 | 5 | 7 | 124.066 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 6 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:10.7911 | 0.4089 | 5 | 6 | 124.033 | Honda | A | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 7 | Jack Harvey | 1:10.8564 | 0.4742 | 6 | 6 | 123.918 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 8 | Scott McLaughlin | 1:10.9067 | 0.5245 | 5 | 7 | 123.830 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | 1:10.9093 | 0.5271 | 5 | 6 | 123.826 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 10 | Callum Ilott | 1:11.1195 | 0.7373 | 5 | 6 | 123.460 | Chevy | A | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 11 | 1:11.2156 | 0.8334 | 5 | 6 | 123.293 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises | |
| 12 | 1:11.7710 | 1.3888 | 7 | 7 | 122.339 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
