Graham Rahal will lead an all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda front row to the green flag for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course after scoring his first pole position since Detroit in 2017. The second generation racer eclipsed May’s Indy road course polesitter, teammate Christian Lundgaard, by 0.1154s in a qualifying session smattered with surprises.
Firestone Fast Six
Five of the cars went straight out on used Firestone alternates, while Alexander Rossi ran primaries on his Arrow McLaren. Initially Devlin DeFrancesco sprang to the top but Lundgaard knocked him off with a 1m10.5858s, and pitted. Pato O’Ward said his rear wheels were locking up on his first run, and pitted for more of the softer reds.
Rossi’s first flyer on reds produced top time, but it lasted mere seconds before O’Ward, Lundgaard and Rahal deposed him. Lundgaard landed a 1m10.2286s and then pitted, 0.1167s clear of O’Ward. But their respective teammates were on two-lap runs, and they paid off handsomely. Rossi, who won this race last year for Andretti Autosport, managed to shade O’Ward by half a tenth of a second, while Rahal — who had set fastest time in Q2 — landed a 1m10.1132s to nab top spot.
DeFrancesco could still be very satisfied with his first appearance in the Firestone Fast Six, as he proved fastest of all the Andretti Autosport Hondas, 0.0083s ahead of Romain Grosjean.
Q2
On Firestone’s harder primary tires, Rossi sat top for Arrow McLaren, ahead of Jack Harvey and Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Onto the alternates, Rossi was again fast, his 1m10.0124s ahead of his former teammates Grosjean and DeFrancesco in the only Andretti Autosport entries to make the top 12.
Then Rahal ducked under the 70-second bar, with a 1m09.9837s, a couple of hundredths ahead of teammate Lundgaard and Rossi. Grosjean also advanced ahead of O’Ward in a second McLaren, but the big plaudits went to DeFrancesco who made his first ever Firestone Fast Six session.
That meant no Ganassis made it, Marcus Armstrong falling just 0.0008s short of DeFrancesco, while points leader Palou claimed ninth. The pair were split by the third RLL car of Harvey. Felix Rosenqvist was the McLaren knocked out, while Penske’s highest representative will be Scott McLaughlin in 11th.
Q1 Group 2
On primary tires, championship leader Palou led the way for Chip Ganassi Racing ahead of Lundgaard, with Helio Castroneves third for Meyer Shank Racing. Onto the alternates tires, Grosjean was the first to show his hand, ahead of Armstrong and Rahal. Then Lundgaard hit the top spot by three tenths ahead of the ex-Formula 1 driver. He was joined in the 125mph category by Rahal, who was two-tenths down and struggling with a long brake pedal.
Grosjean made it through, as did Castroneves who announced this morning he would be Indy 500 only at MSR in 2024 and ’25.
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All four Ganassi cars were in this group, and it was Palou and rookie Armstrong who made it through, Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson who fell short. Indeed, the pair were outpaced by the impressive Linus Lundqvist, getting ready for his second IndyCar start with MSR.
Notably, IndyCar rookie and touring car ace Agustin Canapino beat Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet teammate Callum Ilott by 0.04s.
Q1 Group 1
Qualifying groups are decided by times in first practice — odd positions in one group, even positions in the other — and as fate would have it, all three Arrow McLaren and Team Penske entries were in Group 1. That would make things tough for Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Autosport Honda and David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda. But it would be no easy ride for the Penskes, since both Will Power — who had a bad damper in this morning’s session — and Josef Newgarden who needed a heavily revised setup, went into the session with unknowns hanging over their heads.
It showed. Before everyone ran alternate tires, Rossi sat top for McLaren ahead of DeFrancesco and Harvey. Then once everyone went onto alternates, DeFrancesco and Harvey went to the top ahead of O’Ward and McLaughlin, while Rossi and Rosenqvist ensured all three McLarens were through.
Falling short of their teammate DeFrancesco — and graduation to Q2 — were Herta and Kirkwood, while Power and Newgarden were unable to match their teammate McLaughlin. Newgarden will thus be battling to get back in title contention from the back end of the grid.
UP NEXT: Practice 2, 4:00pm ET