Felix Rosenqvist beats Pato O’Ward to Long Beach IndyCar pole

Motorsport photo

Felix Rosenqvist will lead the field to the green flag after winning pole for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long beach.

The Swede, driving the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, put together a strong flying lap of 1m07.4635s around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit to claim the top spot. It’s the seventh pole of his IndyCar Series career.

Pato O'Ward’s #5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet the last to go out on the adjusted single-car, single-lap qualifying for street circuits, nearly pulled off a dramatic run to take the spot, but was left settling for second by 0.0441s.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou ended up third, ahead of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and Team Penske’s David Malukas. Scott Dixon, in the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, will line up sixth.

Fast Six

Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian

With the adjusted single-car, single-lap qualifying format for street events allowing for those involved to choose when they want to go out based on how they ended up in Segment 2, the order ended up being Malukas, Palou, Felix, Kirkwood, Dixon, and O'Ward. The only key adjustment was O’Ward, who opted to go out last despite being fifth in the second round.

Malukas had several sideways moments during his run, with the rear sliding and kicking out as he delivered a 1m07.6508s lap to set the baseline time.

Reigning and four-time IndyCar champion Palou was the next out, and smoothly hustled around until having a massive lockup into the final hairpin corner, but the error wasn’t enough to deter setting the quick lap of 1m07.5289s to dethrone Malukas.

The third driver to go out was Rosenqvist, who managed to vault to the top with an inch-perfect flyer and used up every part of the track to nail a 1m07.4635s lap.

Defending race winner Kirkwood went out fourth and was tracking for the front row but a brief slide in Turn 4 and another in Turn 10 resulted in a lap of 1m07.6199s to slot third and push Malukas down to fourth.

Six-time series champion Dixon, who has never sat on pole at Long Beach, went out fifth and was unable to vault any of his rivals after a lap of 1m07.8566s.

O’Ward went out last among the group, but tracked even with Rosenqvist throughout the lap but narrowly missed out on bumping him for pole, with a lap of 1m07.5076s to slot second.

Round of 12

Will Power, Andretti Global

Malukas delivered a 1m07.244s quick lap to pace the second round, ahead of Palou by 0.0117s. Rosenqvist ended up third, with Kirkwood and O’Ward behind. The last driver to transfer into the Firestone Fast Six was Dixon, who surged to the spot in the final moment by making up a tenth of second in the final hairpin corner.

Andretti Global’s Will Powerwas bumped by Dixon, missing the transfer spot by 0.0272s. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was eighth, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson in ninth and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in 10th. Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard was 11th, followed by Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay.

Groups

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske

In Group 1, Rosenqvist dished out a 1m07.4691s flying lap to go to the top of the time sheets. O’Ward ended up second at 0.1674s behind. Malukas was third, ahead of Lundgaard, McLaughlin and VeeKay.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong was the first to miss the transfer spot. Others to miss out included Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, Dale Coyne Racing’s duo of Romain Grosjean and rookie Dennis Hauger, along with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s duo Louis Foster and rookie Mick Schumacher.

Group 2 was led by Dixon, followed by Palou, Power, Kirkwood, Simpson and Rahal. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the first out, missing the cut by 0.0169s. He was followed by Ed Carpenter Racing’s pair of Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen. Others out early included AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet and teammate Santino Ferrucci, along with Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb and Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel.