Matthew Brabham will start his second Indy Lights race from third position after narrowly missing out on pole position at the famous Long Beach street course.
The 20-year-old son of Geoff, the eldest of Sir Jack Brabham’s sons, made the most of the dying minutes of the session to elevate himself to third, just six hundredths of a second adrift of pole man Zach Veach.
Frenchman Alex Baron held provisional pole for the majority of the session before he pitted with 30 seconds remaining believing he had done enough.
However, as chequered flag flew Andretti Autosport’s Veach came through to snatch pole with a 1.15.0074s. He was followed by Gabby Chaves and Brabham with the trio separated by just 0.0618s.
Baron will start from fourth just ahead of ex-GP2 racer Luiz Razia and former British F3 champion Jack Harvey.
Indy Lights Qualifying Results – Long Beach
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
1 | Zach Veach | Andretti | 1m15.0074s | |
2 | Gabby Chaves | Belardi | 1m15.0349s | +0.0275s |
3 | Matthew Brabham | Andretti | 1m15.0692s | +0.0618s |
4 | Alex Baron | Belardi | 1m15.0863s | +0.0789s |
5 | Luiz Razia | Schmidt | 1m15.7513s | +0.7439s |
6 | Jack Harvey | Schmidt | 1m15.9463s | +0.9389s |
7 | Scott Anderson | Fan Force | 1m15.9819s | +0.9745s |
8 | Juan Piedrahita | Schmidt | 1m16.2681s | +1.2607s |
9 | Juan Pablo Garcia | Schmidt | 1m16.3914s | +1.3840s |
10 | Vittorio Ghirelli | Moore | 1m16.4741s | +1.4667s |
11 | Zack Meyer | Moore | 1m16.4882s | +1.4808s |
12 | Lloyd Read | Herta | 1m17.2629s | +2.2555s |