Rahal Letterman Lanigan has had to improve significantly on street circuits and with his second pole position of 2023 Christian Lundgaard confirmed that RLL has made great strides since making deep changes to improve its fortunes.
With a lap of 1:04.1567, Lundgaard in the #45 Honda was well ahead of his rivals as the Firestone Fast Six coped with dry tires on a wet track. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was second fastest in the #3 Chevy (+0.3223s), Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was third in the #5 Chevy (+0.3933s) and Marcus Ericsson (+0.7524s). ) was fourth Chip Ganassi Racing in the #8 Honda, O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist was fifth in the #6 Chevy (+0.7856 seconds) and Penske’s Will Power was sixth in the #12 Chevy (+0.9136 seconds) .
As is so often the case, the 21-year-old Dane has worked wonders for RLL, capturing a surprise pole for the team of Bobby Rahal, Mike Lanigan and David Letterman.
“I’ve always driven fast in the rain – at least in the go-karting area – in the past and I’ve only driven this car once in the rain and we weren’t competitive, but the car today was just there and I can’t cannot thank this team enough,” said Lundgaard, who was 18 positions clear of his closest teammate.
“Considering where we’ve been on street circuits, even last year, we’ve made progress and I can only thank the team at this point.”
The drama early in qualifying, with rain settling in the closing minutes of the opening session, favored those who posted their best runs early and disadvantaged those who waited until the last moment to set their best time. Championship leader Alex Palou suffered the most, but he clearly lacked speed before the ski race opened and didn’t blame the changing conditions for his 15th start, his worst of the season.
Kyle Kirkwood in eighth, Romain Grosjean in ninth and Colton Herta in 14th – all pole contenders for Andretti Autosport coming out of the morning session – missed the race by a wide margin, as did Penske’s Josef Newgarden the 11th place.
Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas was also quick in the morning session and had plans to move to the Fast 12 but he managed to lock up CGR’s Dixon on his first flying lap on alternative tires and was duly penalized by the series, allowing him to Palou was two places behind in 17th place.
The end result was a qualifying result that saw some of IndyCar’s toughest drivers fall many rows from their usual grid positions, which should make for 85 laps of unpredictable action for racing fans starting Sunday at 1:30pm ET (available only on Peacock). .
WHEN IT HAPPENED
The first half of the field battled for the six available transfer spots in the opening 10-minute session and with a dry track at their disposal, Kyle Kirkwood was the first to put in an appreciable lap on the Firestone primary tires. With the switch to the faster alternative green-band tyres, the group of 13 riders was split up, with the top six led by Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus VeeKay, Christian Lundgaard, Will Power, Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin.
Those who didn’t manage to move were Helio Castroneves (who starts from P13), Alex Palou (P15), David Malukas – who was said to have blocked Scott Dixon and whose two fastest laps were canceled – (P17), Jack Harvey ( P19) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (P21), Sting Ray Robb (P23) and Benjamin Pedersen (P25).
With the second half of the field using wet tires for their 10-minute session, the improved conditions in the final minute meant the top six made repeated changes and as soon as the checkered flag blew the changing six became Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson and Josef Led by Newgarden, Felix Rosenqvist, Pato O’Ward and Marcus Armstrong.
Spinners, run-off visitors or wall-hitters included Agustin Canapino, Colton Herta, Romain Grosjean, Tom Blomqvist, Graham Rahal – who broke his front wing at the barriers, Grosjean again, Alexander Rossi, Herta again and Marcus Armstrong.
Those who finished qualifying were led by Colton Herta (starting P14), Callum Ilott (P16), Agustin Canapino (P18), Tom Blomqvist (P20), Devlin DeFrancesco (P22), Santino Ferrucci (P24), Alexander Rossi – whose car failed to escape the runoff (P26), and Graham Rahal (P27).
“Electrically, the car just broke down,” said Rossi. “Crap. I’ve never seen that before. We could have easily finished first and had to change.”
After a long delay due to Race Direction’s confirmation of the results of the previous session, the Fast 12 entered the wet track on wet tyres, but it was no longer raining. Each lap was significantly quicker than the last as water was cleared from the track and the two who pitted at the end of the session for fresh wet tires were rewarded, led by O’Ward, Lundgaard, Rosenqvist, McLaughlin, Ericsson – who spun halfway across the finish line and hit the wall with his left rear tire, and Will Power who hit his first fast six of the year.
Big surprises came from the Andretti team, who led every session until qualifying but failed to place any of their four drivers in the Fast Six. The field was behind the Fast Six with Dixon (P7), Kirkwood (P8), Grosjean (P9), Armstrong (P10), Newgarden (P11) and VeeKay (P12).
The track was so dry that slicks could be used to secure pole position. With five minutes of laps to go and some sections quite wet, the final lap of qualifying turned into an exciting battle for control of the car.
McLaughlin was the first to lose that fight with a half-spin that also resulted in a block from Ericsson with 2:30 left. Almost every driver changed at the front and on the last lap Lundgaard flew to his second pole of the season.
McLaughlin, O’Ward, Ericsson, Rosenqvist and Power completed the top six.
RESULTS