First group
IndyCar qualifying began at the Barber Motorsports Park for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on a greasy track with clouds overhead following a hectic and rainy second practice session. In Group One was Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou, Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Jacob Abel, Conor Daly, Graham Rahal, Marcus Armstrong, Pato O’Ward, Santino Ferrucci, WIll Power, Marcus Ericsson and Nolan Siegel.
The first competitive times came in from Palou, McLaughlin and Siegel. Will Power believed he sped in the pits and Rasmussen had a big oversteer moment.
McLaughlin soon went first with a 1:08.2504. Palou soon went top, with Rossi third, Power fourth, O’Ward fifth and Siegel in sixth. Ferrucci pipped Siegel for sixth. With five minutes left, Power had a big moment. The order was Palou, McLaughlin, Rossi, Abel, who set a brilliant time, Power, O’Ward, Ferrucci, Siegel, Ericsson, Rahal, Daly, Rasmussen and Armstrong.
With three minutes left, the field came out onto the circuit. After most did laps on the harder primary tires early on, everyone was on the softer alternatives. Some chose to do two warm up laps, while some needed only one.
O’Ward was the first to set a proper time in the final stint. In the opening sector he was two tenths up, and followed it through to go all the way up to first by half a second.
But others were improving. Palou, McLaughlin and Armstrong were quick. Armstrong briefly went first before fellow Kiwi McLaughlin, who is the defending race winner, went first. Palou went second, Daly went fifth to top Rossi before Rahal and Siegel both improved too. Ferrucci then moved up to fifth, which bumped Rahal from group one.
In the final laps, Rossi went to seventh but was out, while McLaughlin and Palou both pitted, Palou after going first. Rasmussen got up to eighth with Daly ninth, so Rahal went from seventh to 10th. Ericsson, a favourite for pole due to his pace in the first practice, got eliminated, which was likely due to the colder conditions as the weather in Alabama was cooler. Power set a time which knocked out Ferrucci right at the end. Whilst Power did get through, he barely scraped through and was half a second down on Penske teammate McLaughlin
Going through to the fast 12 were Palou, McLaughlin, Armstrong, O’Ward, Siegel and Power. Eliminated were Ferrucci, Rossi, Rasmussen, Daly, Rahal, Ericsson and Abel.
Second group
The second group then came out onto the circuit with Kyle Kirkwood, Colton Herta, Felix Rosenqvist, David Malukas, Scott Dixon, Christian Lundgaard, Kyffin Simpson, Sting Ray Robb, Callum Ilott, Devlin DeFrancesco, Rinus VeeKay, Josef Newgarden, Robert Shwartzman and Louis Foster.
There was a mix of choice of tyres, as the Prema duo of Ilott and Shwartzman, Foster and Simpson chose to go onto softs, while the others went on hards.
Herta and Kirkwood set the first two competitive times with them both in the 1:08s and soon Malukas and Simpson joined them. Ilott pipped Kirkwood too. Newgarden moved up to sixth, so the top six was Herta, Simpson, Malukas, Ilott, Kirkwood and Newgarden.
Almost spinning was Herta, who was going full-steam ahead, while Foster went second on the softs. Herta’s time of a 1:08.1874 was soon surpassed by Simpson, who set a 1:08/1695, albeit on a softer compound. Simpson was a second down on Palou’s time however, which showed that quite a few drivers could likely improve.
Newgarden improved on the reds on his first lap with a 1:08.7046, which got him ahead of Kyle Kirkwood.
After two warm-up laps, the sea of green was seen on the timing screens. Newgartden was the first to improve, going first with a 1:07.4983. Simpson then set a 1:07.5082, but was overtaken for second by Lundgaard. Rosenqvist went fourth but then Herta arrived, going first. VeeKay got to fifth after a number of improvements by Ilott, Malukas and Foster.
Dixon went off the track, which meant he was out of contention for getting into the fast 12.
Foster went sixth, but others were improving. Kirkwood went only ninth, which was poor from the race winner last time out in Long Beach. In the end, the final laps were underwhelming.
Going through were Herta, Newgarden. Lundgaard, Simpson, VeeKay and Foster, while Rosenqvist missed out on the fast 12 for the first time this season in seventh. Following him were Ilott, Kirkwood, Malukas, Robb, Shwartzman, Dixon and DeFrancesco. Although it was as tight as ever – from Foster in sixth to Malukas in tenth was just over a tenth of a second.
Fast 12
The top six from each group transferred into the fast 12, leaving Ganassi’s Palou and Simpson, Penske’s trio of Power, Newgarden and McLaughlin, Dale Coyne’s VeeKay, McLaren’s trio of O’Ward, Siegel and Lundgaard, Meyer Shank Racing’s Armstrong, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Foster and Andretti’s Herta in the Fast 12.
After two warm up laps once more, the session started to get interesting. Herta was first, setting a 1:07.6294. Palou and Power followed soon after but remained in the 1:08s. It was worth noting that Herta, Palou and Power went on used reds, while McLaughlin, Newgarden and VeeKay were on blacks. Red runner Siegel moved ahead of Newgarden, VeeKay and McLaughlin to go into fourth. Simpson went sixth on black before O’Ward moved ahead of him and McLaughlin to go fifth. Simpson almost paid the favour back, but went sixth.
Now it was time for the drivers to go onto the new soft tyres, but Herta would be tricky to beat considering his pace on the used reds. Two minutes were left.
Foster was first, going into fifth with a 1:08.4427, knocking out Simpson and leaving O’Ward in the danger zone of sixth.
In rapid succession, Penske duo Power and Newgarden split Herta in a sandwich before Palou went second. Lundgaard went fifth and then O’Ward moved up to fourth. McLaughlin then went into third too, dashing Siegel’s hopes as he moved into sixth just before that. Lundgaard went fifth, but VeeKay got past him. Herta set a good enough time to get into third. Siegel bumped out Lundgaard, who outqualified both of his McLaren teammates.
Going through was Power, Palou, Herta, McLaughlin, VeeKay and Siegel into the fast six, while Lundgaard, O’Ward, Newgarden, Simpson, Armstrong and Foster would be starting in positions 7-12.
Firestone Fast 6
Five of the six decided to go out on sticker reds, as McLaughlin decided to wait and risk not putting a banker in. After the banker runs it was VeeKay ahead of Herta, Siegel, Power and Palou.
McLaughlin elected to go for two bankers, as did Herta, albeit more aggressively than McLaughlin.
The first to set a time was McLaughlin, who went first with a 1:07.4713. He was only first for a few seconds, as Herta went top by only 0.0137 seconds. Palou was third, while VeeKay went fourth, albeit four tenths behind Palou.
Power and Siegel left it late to start their times. Herta, McLaughlin and Palou were all close to improving. McLaughlin moved up to first, but like before, his joy was brief, as reigning champion Alex Palou went first. Herta remained third, while Power went fourth and VeeKay and Siegel didn’t improve. Palou took a fantastic pole by one and a half tenths.
