Rosenqvist pips McLaughlin to Texas IndyCar pole

Felix Rosenqvist has qualified on pole for Race 2 of the IndyCar season at Texas Motorsport Speedway, with Scott McLaughlin to join him on the front row.

The McLaren SP driver pipped the series leader by 0.014mph (0.023km/h) over the course of their respective two-lap runs around the Fort Worth circuit, despite being 16 cars apart in a qualifying order set on the basis of entrant points.

Takuma Sato ended up third for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR, with Will Power making it two Team Penske cars on the first two rows, and Scott Dixon qualifying fifth in his Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

Rosenqvist was only 11th onto the track but first to crack a lap above 221mph when he set a 221.316mph on his first tour.

He had a nervous moment on his second lap when he touched the grass coming out of the final corner in the #7 Chevrolet, going around the track again in 220.905mph for a 221.110mph (355.842km/h) two-lap average.

Stan Sport is the only way to watch every round of the INDYCAR SERIES. Click here for all the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand.

It took another seven cars for a serious threat to come, Sato falling just shy with a 221.094mph average in the #51 Honda, before Dixon took up third when he completed a two-lap run of 221.011mph in the #9 Honda.

That was the top three with five cars still to come, at which time Romain Grosjean clocked an average of 220.412mph in the #28 Andretti Autosport entry to take up ninth.

That became 10th when team-mate Colton Herta followed the Frenchman and set a 220.602mph run which put Car #26 into seventh, with three drivers to go.

Will Power then went third-quickest with a 221.016mph average in the #12 Penske Chevrolet and when Chip Ganassi Racing’s 2021 champion Alex Palou set a 220.571mph, only McLaughlin could knock Rosenqvist off pole.

The St Petersburg race winner was fast on his first lap, a 221.166mph effort, but could not make up the time on a second lap of 221.027mph which left the #3 Penske Chevrolet with an average of 221.096mph (355.820km/h).

The top 10 for the start of Sunday’s (local time) 248-lapper is thus Rosenqvist, McLaughlin, Sato, Power, Dixon, Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), Josef Newgarden (Penske), Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Herta, and Pato O’Ward (McLaren SP).

Palou ended up 11th, from Alexander Rossi (Andretti), Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson (CGR).

Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud set the pace in Practice 1 but ended up only 14th on the grid with a 220.338mph average.

Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing) was next-quickest, then Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport).

Jimmie Johnson, on his competitive oval debut in IndyCar, wheeled the #48 Chip Ganassi Racing entry to a 219.865mph average which had him faster than the four drivers who went before him, and 18th all told.

The rest of the grid will be David Malukas (DCR w/ HMD), Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Ed Carpenter (ECR), Dalton Kellett (AJ Foyt Racing), Kyle Kirkwood (AJ Foyt Racing), Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Christian Lundgaard (RLLR), JR Hildebrand (AJ Foyt), and Graham Rahal (RLLR).

A special session has been added to the programme for the express purpose of rubbering in the top lane of the track, with final practice pushed back to 08:45 AEDT this Sunday morning.

Race start is scheduled for Monday at 03:45 AEDT, with live and ad-free streaming on Stan Sport from 03:30 AEDT.

Results: Qualifying

Pos	Num	Driver	C/E/T	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total time	Avg speed (mph)
1	7	Felix Rosenqvist	D/C/F	23.4235	23.4671	0:46.8906	221.110
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	D/C/F	23.4394	23.4542	0:46.8936	221.096
3	51	Takuma Sato	D/H/F	23.4341	23.4599	0:46.8940	221.094
4	12	Will Power	D/C/F	23.4545	23.4561	0:46.9106	221.016
5	9	Scott Dixon	D/H/F	23.4470	23.4646	0:46.9116	221.011
6	06	Helio Castroneves	D/H/F	23.4519	23.5114	0:46.9633	220.768
7	2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/F	23.4787	23.4867	0:46.9654	220.758
8	21	Rinus VeeKay	D/C/F	23.4540	23.5136	0:46.9676	220.748
9	26	Colton Herta	D/H/F	23.4834	23.5152	0:46.9986	220.602
10	5	Pato O’Ward	D/C/F	23.4668	23.5367	0:47.0035	220.579
11	10	Alex Palou	D/H/F	23.4997	23.5055	0:47.0052	220.571
12	27	Alexander Rossi	D/H/F	23.5141	23.5152	0:47.0293	220.458
13	28	Romain Grosjean	D/H/F	23.4923	23.5469	0:47.0392	220.412
14	8	Marcus Ericsson	D/H/F	23.5108	23.5386	0:47.0494	220.364
15	60	Simon Pagenaud	D/H/F	23.5333	23.5217	0:47.0550	220.338
16	20	Conor Daly	D/C/F	23.5525	23.5775	0:47.1300	219.987
17	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	D/H/F	23.5979	23.5534	0:47.1513	219.888
18	48	Jimmie Johnson	D/H/F	23.5630	23.5932	0:47.1562	219.865
19	18	David Malukas	D/H/F	23.5715	23.5849	0:47.1564	219.864
20	77	Callum Ilott	D/C/F	23.6026	23.6402	0:47.2428	219.462
21	33	Ed Carpenter	D/C/F	23.6227	23.6739	0:47.2966	219.212
22	4	Dalton Kellett	D/C/F	23.6415	23.6928	0:47.3343	219.038
23	14	Kyle Kirkwood	D/C/F	23.6554	23.6842	0:47.3396	219.013
24	45	Jack Harvey	D/H/F	23.6907	23.6992	0:47.3899	218.781
25	30	Christian Lundgaard	D/H/F	23.7125	23.6978	0:47.4103	218.687
26	11	JR Hildebrand	D/C/F	23.6994	23.7332	0:47.4326	218.584
27	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/F	23.7538	23.7165	0:47.4703	218.410