Felix Rosenqvist won the NTT P1 Award for the Gallagher Grand Prix with a lap Friday afternoon on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course that impressed his rivals and continued his recent resurgence.
Rosenqvist earned his second pole of the season with a quick lap of 1 minute, 10.2265 seconds in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. His previous 2022 pole came at Texas Motor Speedway. This was Rosenqvist’s third career pole, as his first came in 2019 on the IMS road course.
The three-round qualifying session was almost as notable for the drivers who will start the race from deep in the field as those who qualified up front.
Series points leader Marcus Ericsson will start last in the 25-car field in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. He stopped on track with a mechanical problem on his warmup lap in the first session, never turning a flying lap.
Six-time series champion Scott Dixon, 34-points behind Ericsson in fourth, will start 20th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The IMS road course has been a bogey track in qualifying recently for Dixon, as he has started 12th or lower in his last five races here.
The gap between Rosenqvist’s lap and the best lap of No. 2 qualifier Alexander Rossi was .2765 of a second, the second-largest margin this season on a road or street course. Only Colton Herta’s pole-winning margin of .4455 of a second at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was bigger.
Rossi will join Rosenqvist on the front row after qualifying second at 1:10.5030 in the No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation Honda. It was Rossi’s best career qualifying position on the IMS road course.
Pato O’Ward qualified third at 1:10.6092 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, with five-time IMS road course winner Will Power fourth at 1:10.6224 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Josef Newgarden – cleared to drive for the weekend after Friday morning practice – qualified fifth at 1:10.6968 in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Rookie Christian Lundgaard rounded out the Firestone Fast Six at 1:10.7280 in the No. 30 Shield Cleansers Honda.
Rosenqvist’s pole marked another chapter in his summer surge. All six of his top-10 finishes this season have come since the GMR Grand Prix in early May. Rosenqvist re-signed with McLaren Racing in late June, but the team hasn’t announced his racing series for 2023.
Qualifying Results (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed)
1/ (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:10.2265 (125.030)
2/ (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:10.5030 (124.539)
3/ (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:10.6092 (124.352)
4/ (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:10.6224 (124.329)
5/ (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:10.6968 (124.198)
6/ (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:10.7280 (124.143)
7/ (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:10.2074 (125.064)
8/ (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:10.3100 (124.881)
9/ (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:10.3532 (124.805)
10/ (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:10.5135 (124.521)
11/ (18) David Malukas, Honda, 01:10.5636 (124.432)
12/ (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 01:10.7624 (124.083)
13/ (45) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:10.8564 (123.918)
14/ (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 01:10.7073 (124.180)
15/ (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:10.9067 (123.830)
16/ (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:10.7560 (124.094)
17/ (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:10.9093 (123.826)
18/ (51) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:10.8276 (123.969)
19/ (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 01:11.1195 (123.460)
20/ (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:10.8938 (123.853)
21/ (14) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 01:11.2156 (123.293)
22/ (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:11.0244 (123.625)
23/ (48) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 01:11.7710 (122.339)
24/ (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 01:12.0060 (121.940)
25/ (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, No Time (No Speed)
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