Who took pole position on the famous streets of Long Beach in qualifying ahead of Sunday’s race?
Ahead of qualifying at the iconic Long Beach track for the NTT IndyCar Series, it was McLaren’s Nolan Siegel who topped Practice 2 ahead of Andretti’s Colton Herta and British rookie Louis Foster for Rahal Letterman Lanigan (RLL). Will Power was the favourite for pole position, as he was first in Practice 1 and fourth in Practice 2 for Penske.
First group
The first qualifying group had Herta, Power, Power’s Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, A.J. Foyt Enterprise’s David Malukas, McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward, Meyer Shank Racing (MSR)’s Felix Rosenqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Kyffin Simpson, Dale Coyne Racing (DCR)’s Rinus VeeKay, RLL’s Devlin DeFrancesco, MSR’s Marcus Armstrong and the Juncos Hollinger Racing pair of Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb. The top six of these drivers would progress to the Fast 12. The same applies for the second group.
The first session got underway and early on it was more so about familiarity for the drivers. Up until the last few minutes the times were in the late 1:07s.
Early on Rosenqvist got in the wars, being held up by DeFrancesco and having a spin which meant his best time was deleted initially.
With five minutes left it was Simpson first with a 1:07.702 followed by Herta on a 1:07.797. What was so important though was that Herta’s time was on the primary (slower) tyres and Simpson’s was on the alternate (quicker) tyres. O’Ward became the third driver in the 1:07s also on a set of alternatives as he went third with a time just shy of Herta on a 1:07.798. Then with a minute and a half left, the chaos began.
Newgarden was the first to show his card with a 1:07.6905, going quickest overall. With under a minute left, Robb then went third with a 1:07.7925. In rapid succession, Armstrong set a 1:07.4324, Rosenqvist set a 1:07.3949, making it an MSR 1-2 ahead of Power’s time of a 1:07.6606 which he set just after the MSR duo. Then Lundgaard blew them all away with a 1:07.2092, which remained the top time. When he set it he knocked Robb out with the MSR duo, Power, Newgarden and Simpson behind.
Herta and O’Ward, two of the favourites, were out as it stood. But they made diamonds under pressure and went third and fourth. Now Power was on the bubble in sixth and Newgarden was out. Then, a Penske nightmare. Malukas went into sixth, meaning Power and Newgarden were at best going to be thirteenth and fifteenth and at worst fourteenth and sixteenth for the Long Beach GP.
Both blamed their lack of pace in qualifying on traffic. Newgarden blamed Rosenqvist, but commentators Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe agreed that the gap was too big between the two. Power on the other hand was slightly more justified.
Despite progressing, Herta Herta hit the wall and damaged his towlink.
Going into the Fast 12 were Lundgaard, Herta, Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Armstrong and Malukas.
Second group
The second qualifying group had Siegel, Foster, Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood, championship leader and CGR driver Alex Palou, defending Long Beach winner and CGR driver Scott Dixon, the sole Penske who could get through in Scott McLaughlin, RLL’s Graham Rahal, Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)’s Christian Rasmussen, Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson, ECR’s Alexander Rossi, Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci, Prema duo Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman and DCR’s Jacob Abel.
Similar to the first group, it took a bit of time for competitive laptimes to come in. The first competitive time was from Ferrucci with just over seven minutes left, setting a 1:07.7646 which lasted for thirty seconds before Shwartzman set a 1:07.6606. Ilott then joined in the 1:07 club with a 1:07.9514. He was quickly pipped by Rahal and Rossi who went fourth and second. Rasmussen then set a 1:07.5 and went top, although there was still six minutes left. Heading into the final runs, the top six was Rasmussen, Shwartzman, Rossi, Ferrucci, Palou and Rahal.
Palou set a benchmark for the others to follow: a 1:07 flat. Foster was next to set a time but only set a 1:07.5 which likely was not going to be enough as Malukas barely scraped through in the first group with a 1:07.5. Ericsson and McLaughlin got closer with a 1:07.2142 and a 1:07.1104, but Palou still ruled the roost until Kyle Kirkwood set the first 1:06 laptime with a 1:06.9.
Dixon briefly moved into the top six but was quickly pipped by Rossi and Siegel, which meant the other six drivers going through were Kirkwood, Palou, McLaughlin, Siegel, Ericsson and Rossi.
Ferrucci went off after damaging both tyres in the second sector of the track at the end of the session.
Fast 12
All but Nolan Siegel were on used alternates in the opening phase of the session and after the first phase, Lundgaard was first with a 1:06.9 followed by Herta, who had his towlink fixed, Ericsson, O’Ward, Kirkwood and McLaughlin. At this stage it was 3 Hondas and 3 Chevrolets that were through, but by the end of the session, it would be one of the two which dominated more than the other.
With just over a minute left, Alexander Rossi was the first driver to attempt to beat Lundgaard’s time. He would have been two tenths down anyway, but Lundgaard went and improved, setting a 1:06.7309. Palou, like in Group 2, beat this time with a 1:06.6. Kirkwood then went even quicker than the Spaniard with a 1:06.4219.
So after the first few laps it was Kirkwood, Palou, Lundgaard, Rossi, Herta and Ericsson. Many drivers were still setting quick times however.
Herta was now under pressure once again as Ericsson went third slightly quicker than Lundgaard. Herta, with just over 30 seconds left on the clock, set a time which was almost guaranteed to get him through of a 1:06.5648.
Rossi was knocked out by Armstrong, who’s joy lasted three seconds before teammate Rosenqvist knocked him out from sixth.
Then Rosenqvist’s hopes were dashed, as McLaughlin also improved.
Meanwhile, Lundgaard had a big crash at turn nine just after McLaughlin set his time and due to the IndyCar qualifying regulations, Rosenqvist was promoted to the Firestone Fast 6 as he was seventh. None of the McLarens got into the Firestone Fast 6 as the drivers going through were the three Andrettis of Kirkwood, Herta and Ericsson, Ganassi’s Palou, Penske’s McLaughlin and MSR’s Rosenqvist.
The only Chevrolet-powered car going into the Firestone Fast 6 was McLaughlin.
Firestone Fast 6
Less than a minute in and Colton Herta had his second incident, with a big lockup at turn one.
Because of the shorter length of the Fast 6, drivers could only get two clean laps in fully. The first to set a proper clean lap was Palou with a 1:06.6254 with 30 seconds remaining.
Ericsson was next as with 20 seconds left he slotted in behind Palou but within a tenth of him, meaning if Herta and Kirkwood set times quicker than Palou, that he would be the lowest Andretti.
Only Ericsson and Palou would have a chance at two competitive times, as the next time was by Kirkwood after the chequered flag fell. Kirkwood’s time was nothing short of incredible. Palou wasn’t just beaten by a tenth or two, but almost half a second. Kirkwood set a 1:06.1921. Rosenqvist got ahead of Ericsson, meaning Ericsson didn’t win best Swedish qualifier either.
Moments later, the deciding moment. Herta came across the line but was still two tenths down on Kirkwood. McLaughlin didn’t come close either as he was in the 1:07s, but still did an impressive job as he was the only Penske in the top 12 and the only Chevrolet engine in the Fast 6.
Classification
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Colton Herta
- Alex Palou
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Marcus Ericsson
- Scott McLaughlin
- Marcus Armstrong
- Alexander Rossi
- Pato O’Ward
- David Malukas
- Nolan Siegel
- Christian Lundgaard
- Will Power
- Scott Dixon
- Josef Newgarden
- Graham Rahal
- Kyffin Simpson
- Christian Rasmussen
- Sting Ray Robb
- Louis Foster
- Conor Daly
- Callum Ilott
- Devlin DeFrancesco
- Robert Shwartzman
- Rinus VeeKay
- Jacob Abel
- Santino Ferrucci
