Indy 500: Rosenqvist tops first qualifying in McLaren 1-2

Rosenqvist set the fastest four-lap average of 233.947mph around the 2.5-mile oval with just over an hour remaining of the six-hour session, boasting a quickest single lap 234.329mph.

“That was a phenomenal run,” he said. “I wasn’t super-happy with my first run, so we trimmed the car out but I had no idea we’d be so quick. That put a smile on my face.”

Alexander Rossi made it a McLaren 1-2, taking full advantage of a favorably-early draw inside the opening 40 minutes to set an average of 233.528mph, with a fastest single-lap of 234.177mph.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou was third quickest with 233.528mph, which he set in much warmer track temperatures in the second hour of the session, following an overnight Honda engine change.

Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) was fourth, ahead of Scott Dixon (CGR) who enjoyed his best run at the warmest part of the day, and was also forced to change his engine overnight.

Tony Kanaan, who starts his final race next weekend, rolled back the years with a 233.347mph effort to make it three McLarens in the top six.

Also making the Fast 12 were Takuma Sato (CGR), Pato O’Ward (McLaren), Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing), Marcus Ericsson (CGR), top rookie Benjamin Pedersen (Foyt) and Will Power (Team Penske).

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

The battle for the last spot in the Fast 12

The primary target of the six hours of qualifying was to get inside the top 12 positions, allowing drivers to transfer into Sunday’s Fast 12 session to decide the first four rows of the starting grid.

Just after the halfway point of the session, Kanaan’s four-lap average tied to the 10 thousandth of a second at 2m34.7591s with Ed Carpenter for P12. But Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti) squeezed ahead of them both with 232.662mph for the vital transfer spot with 90 minutes remaining.

Kanaan’s late flyer of 233.347mph jumped him up to fifth, pushing Kirkwood out and putting Power on the bubble. “I’m too old for this man,” Kanaan quipped.

Carpenter ran again, almost brushing the Turn 4 wall on his way to 232.689mph, but just missed bumping Power. “I had one awkward downshift, but that’s how tight it is,” he rued.

Carpenter will start the Indy 500 from 13^th on the grid, ahead of Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Kirkwood (the fastest Andretti Autosport car), Conor Daly (ECR) and Josef Newgarden (Penske). Positions 13-30 are now set, and these cars won’t run tomorrow.

Katherine Legge, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

The battle to avoid last-chance qualifying

The drama at the bottom of the speed charts revolved around the quartet of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s cars, Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas and Sting Ray Robb, and Callum Ilott’s Juncos Hollinger Racing entry as they all toiled to avoid tomorrow’s back row shootout, which decides what driver goes home.

Having switched to team-mate Agustin Canapino’s test car for today, after team boss Ricardo Juncos declared his original car “unsafe”, Ilott dragged himself out of the drop zone at the halfway point of the session with the 27^th best run. “Honestly it’s tough, I kinda wanna cry and maybe I did a little bit,” he admitted with relief.

Canapino himself came closest to crashing today, clipping the wall on the exit of Turn 1 hard enough to bend his right-rear suspension. “I had a big understeer with the wind, so my mistake,” said Canapino, who was safely in the field in 26^th.

Malukas grabbed 30^th with 90 minutes to go, dumping team-mate Robb and the RLL cars of Christian Lundgaard, Graham Rahal and Jack Harvey into the danger zone. But Lundgaard responded and bumped him back a few minutes later.

But with 13 minutes remaining, Malukas produced 231.769mph to leap to 23^rd and consign Lundgaard into the bottom four with Harvey, Robb and Rahal. One of them will go home at the end of tomorrow.

Lundgaard got the final run of qualifying, but could not improve on his time, which meant Katherine Legge is guaranteed to start the race in 30^th spot.

Indianapolis 500 qualifying: Day 1 results

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren	2'33.8810			233.947
2	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	2'34.1569	0.2759	0.2759	233.528
3	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	2'34.2432	0.3622	0.0863	233.398
4	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	2'34.2449	0.3639	0.0017	233.395
5	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	2'34.2584	0.3774	0.0135	233.375
6	Tony Kanaan	Arrow McLaren	2'34.2768	0.3958	0.0184	233.347
7	Takuma Sato	Chip Ganassi Racing	2'34.2932	0.4122	0.0164	233.322
8	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	2'34.3394	0.4584	0.0462	233.252
9	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	2'34.4093	0.5283	0.0699	233.147
10	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	2'34.4866	0.6056	0.0773	233.030
11	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	2'34.6797	0.7987	0.1931	232.739
12	Will Power	Team Penske	2'34.6932	0.8122	0.0135	232.719
13	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	2'34.7128	0.8318	0.0196	232.689
14	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	2'34.7206	0.8396	0.0078	232.677
15	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	2'34.7311	0.8501	0.0105	232.662
16	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	2'34.8833	1.0023	0.1522	232.433
17	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	2'34.9039	1.0229	0.0206	232.402
18	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	2'35.0837	1.2027	0.1798	232.133
19	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	2'35.1744	1.2934	0.0907	231.997
20	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	2'35.2032	1.3222	0.0288	231.954
21	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	2'35.2055	1.3245	0.0023	231.951
22	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	2'35.2539	1.3729	0.0484	231.878
23	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	2'35.3270	1.4460	0.0731	231.769
24	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani	2'35.3857	1.5047	0.0587	231.682
25	Stefan Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	2'35.4083	1.5273	0.0226	231.648
26	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	2'35.6061	1.7251	0.1978	231.353
27	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	2'35.6287	1.7477	0.0226	231.320
28	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	2'35.7212	1.8402	0.0925	231.182
29	R.C. Enerson	Abel Motorsports	2'35.7574	1.8764	0.0362	231.129
30	Katherine Legge	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2'35.7971	1.9161	0.0397	231.070
31	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2'35.8067	1.9257	0.0096	231.056
32	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2'36.4549	2.5739	0.6482	230.098
33	Ray Robb	Dale Coyne Racing	2'36.5526	2.6716	0.0977	229.955
34	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2'37.5311	3.6501	0.9785	228.526
View full results