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IndyCar Indy GP: Champion Palou snatches pole by 0.09s from Lundgaard

Palou Christian Lundgaard IndyCar Power Scott McLaughlin Lanigan Racing Christian Rasmussen Josef Newgarden Marcus Armstrong Pato OWard

The Spaniard was quiet for the majority of qualifying, but managed to deliver a late flyer of 1m09.0004s to claim the top spot on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn IMS circuit.

It was the fourth career pole for Palou, but his first on the IMS road course.

"Yeah, it's a tricky place," said Palou.

"Every time you can start up front in IndyCar it makes a difference. So yeah, looking forward to it. We only used one set of alternates here in qualifying. Looking forward to it tomorrow.

"It was my mom's birthday today, so it's probably a good birthday present."

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard ended up second, just 0.0917s off of Palou’s time.

Team Penske’s Will Power made a dramatic late run but was left settling into third when the checkered flag wrapped up the session.

Fast Six qualifying

The push began with Power dropping a 1m09.1636s flyer, before Lundgaard went second with a 1m09.1679s effort.

Lundgaard was able to respond on his following lap and jumped to the top spot with a 1m09.0921s lap in the final two minutes.

Palou then vaulted both to go to the top of the leaderboard by hitting a 1m09.0004s lap, which he kept as neither Lundgaard nor Power were able to fire back a stronger run. Power’s last-gasp effort included a slide all the way to the timing line.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden quietly took fourth, with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward grabbing fifth and Scott Dixon establishing the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in sixth.


Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	4	1'09.0004		127.251
2	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	4	+0.0917 1'09.0921	0.0917	127.083
3	W. Power Team Penske	12	4	+0.1632 1'09.1636	0.0715	126.951
4	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	4	+0.2524 1'09.2528	0.0892	126.788
5	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	4	+0.3316 1'09.3320	0.0792	126.643
6	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	4	+0.5266 1'09.5270	0.1950	126.288
View full results

Top 12 qualifying

During Lundgaard’s first lap out, he reported over a possible mis-shift over the radio, but it didn’t prevent him from hitting a lap of 1m09.0758s lap to temporarily take the top spot. It was short-lived, though, as Power dethroned him with 1m08.8194s.

The two tussled over first as Lundgaard responded with a 1m08.8388s lap, with Power then clawing back with 1m08.8194s to resecure his spot at the top by 0.0194s.

Palou stood third by 0.18s from the mark set by Power, with O’Ward fourth and Newgarden fifth.

Dixon secured the final transfer spot in sixth, hitting the margin by a narrow 0.1179s over Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong’s promising early pace in qualifying ended in the top 12 by taking eighth. Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) wrapped up on ninth. Both Armstrong and Rahal underwent engine changes after the first practice session.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist finished 10^th, ahead of Pietro Fittipaldi (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) in 11^th and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) claiming 12^th.


Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	W. Power Team Penske	12	7	1'08.8194		127.586
2	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	7	+0.0194 1'08.8388	0.0194	127.550
3	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	8	+0.0863 1'08.9057	0.0669	127.426
4	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	7	+0.1734 1'08.9928	0.0871	127.265
5	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	8	+0.2125 1'09.0319	0.0391	127.193
6	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	8	+0.2422 1'09.0616	0.0297	127.139
7	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	7	+0.2607 1'09.0801	0.0185	127.105
8	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	8	+0.2981 1'09.1175	0.0374	127.036
9	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	7	+0.3297 1'09.1491	0.0316	126.978
10	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	7	+0.4729 1'09.2923	0.1432	126.715
11	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	6	+0.5504 1'09.3698	0.0775	126.574
12	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	6	+0.5721 1'09.3915	0.0217	126.534
View full results

Group Stage qualifying

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, Power’s team-mate, catapulted to the top of the leaderboard with the softer tires by nailing a lap of 1m09.5018s. Power attempted to respond, but went 0.1824s slower and elected to stay out to make another run.

A few seconds later it was VeeKay that knocked McLaughlin off the perch with a 1m08.9462s before being knocked off by Power’s continued run that hit a lap of of 1m08.7890s.

Newgarden then went third, followed by the Arrow McLaren duo of O’Ward and Rossi in fourth and fifth, respectively.

McLaughlin’s freefall continued as Fittipaldi’s late surge pushed him into sixth – the final transfer spot. Despite his best efforts, McLaughlin could not climb higher than seventh and narrowly missed the cut by 0.0048s.

“Yeah, it is IndyCar and it's frustrating,” McLaughlin said. “But yeah, I actually felt my laps were really good. Obviously not good enough. I just missed a couple... Turn 4 is probably my biggest loss. So frustrated.”

After impressing in the earlier sessions, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino also missed the cut, ending up eighth and 0.1248s behind the transfer spot.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey made a strong push, but settled in ninth, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist in 10^th.

Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson endured a miserable outing in 11^th, followed by the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Romain Grosjean in 12^th. Kyffin Simpson, another one of CGR’s rookie drivers, ended up 13^th.


Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	W. Power Team Penske	12	7	1'08.7890		127.643
2	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	7	+0.1572 1'08.9462	0.1572	127.351
3	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	7	+0.2107 1'08.9997	0.0535	127.253
4	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	8	+0.2277 1'09.0167	0.0170	127.221
5	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	7	+0.3010 1'09.0900	0.0733	127.086
6	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	6	+0.3440 1'09.1330	0.0430	127.007
7	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	8	+0.3488 1'09.1378	0.0048	126.999
8	A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78	7	+0.4688 1'09.2578	0.1200	126.779
9	J. Harvey Dale Coyne Racing	18	7	+0.5364 1'09.3254	0.0676	126.655
10	L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing	8	8	+0.5495 1'09.3385	0.0131	126.631
11	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28	7	+0.6046 1'09.3936	0.0551	126.530
12	R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	7	+0.6393 1'09.4283	0.0347	126.467
13	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	4	7	+0.7723 1'09.5613	0.1330	126.225
View full results

In Group 2, Rosenqvist went top with a 1m08.9912s lap, with Lundgaard finishing up in second at 0.0215s.

Armstrong wrapped up in third, just 0.0465s behind, with Rahal’s patience to build up his pace working to end up fourth.

Palou, the reigning and two-time IndyCar champion, managed to grab fifth, ahead of team-mate and six-time series champion Dixon in sixth.

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood missed the transfer line by 0.0182s to take seventh, with AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci in eighth.

Theo Pourchaire, recently announced for Arrow McLaren’s No. 6 entry for the rest of the season minus the Indianapolis 500, was ninth.

Ed Carpenter Racing rookie Christian Rasmussen concluded 10^th, ahead of Luca Ghiotto, making his second series start for Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing.

Championship leader Colton Herta appeared to run out of fuel during his push for transfer into the Top 12, fading off course in Turn 7. He stormed off behind the wall before catching a ride on a golf cart courtesy of Conor Daly. He ended up 12^th in the group, which means he will start 24^th on Sunday.

A pair of rookies in Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) and Sting Ray Robb (AJ Foyt Racing) wrapped up the group in 13^th an 14^th, respectively.


Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	7	1'08.9912		127.268
2	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	7	+0.0215 1'09.0127	0.0215	127.229
3	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	8	+0.0465 1'09.0377	0.0250	127.183
4	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	7	+0.0500 1'09.0412	0.0035	127.176
5	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	8	+0.0502 1'09.0414	0.0002	127.176
6	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	8	+0.1618 1'09.1530	0.1116	126.971
7	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27	7	+0.1800 1'09.1712	0.0182	126.937
8	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	7	+0.2725 1'09.2637	0.0925	126.768
9	T. Pourchaire Arrow McLaren	6	7	+0.3904 1'09.3816	0.1179	126.552
10	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	20	7	+0.4278 1'09.4190	0.0374	126.484
11	L. Ghiotto Dale Coyne Racing	51	7	+0.4607 1'09.4519	0.0329	126.424
12	C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	26	5	+0.5479 1'09.5391	0.0872	126.266
13	T. Blomqvist Meyer Shank Racing	66	7	+0.6352 1'09.6264	0.0873	126.107
14	R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41	7	+1.0487 1'10.0399	0.4135	125.363
View full results

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