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Charles Bradley

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 19th 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 United States G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 4 1'10.1132   125.232
2 Denmark C. Lundgaard Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 45 4 +0.1154 0.1154 125.026
3 United States A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 7 3 +0.1800 0.0646 124.911
4 Mexico P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 5 3 +0.2321 0.0521 124.819
5 Canada D. DeFrancesco Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport 29 3 +0.2806 0.0485 124.733
6 France R. Grosjean Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport 28 4 +0.2889 0.0083 124.718

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

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 10th 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 Canada D. DeFrancesco Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport 29 5 1'10.2805   124.934
2 United Kingdom J. Harvey Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 30 6 +0.0615 0.0615 124.824
3 Mexico P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 5 6 +0.0618 0.0003 124.824
4 New Zealand S. McLaughlin Scott McLaughlin Team Penske 3 7 +0.1050 0.0432 124.747
5 United States A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 7 6 +0.1250 0.0200 124.712
6 Sweden F. Rosenqvist Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 6 6 +0.1314 0.0064 124.701
7 United States C. Herta Colton Herta Andretti Autosport 26 6 +0.1593 0.0279 124.651
8 United States K. Kirkwood Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport 27 6 +0.2064 0.0471 124.568
9 Australia W. Power Will Power Team Penske 12 7 +0.2432 0.0368 124.503
10 United States J. Newgarden Josef Newgarden Team Penske 2 7 +0.3345 0.0913 124.342
11 United States S. Ferrucci Santino Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises 14 7 +0.3656 0.0311 124.287
12 United States 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

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).

 
 
     
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