Marcus Ericsson pulled off a herculean effort to capture his first career IndyCar Series pole in for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.
The 35-year-old Swede put together a remarkable lap of 1m34.3562s around the 14-turn, 2.73-mile temporary street circuit to seize the top spot. It’s Ericsson’s first pole in 117 career starts in North America’s premier open-wheel championship, and first since 2013 when he was in Formula 2 (then GP2).
“I waited long enough, I can tell you that,” said Ericsson, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner.
“I think 2013 was the last pole I had, so I feel like this is a giant thing for me just because of that. And I’ve been second, I’ve been four times in IndyCar, and two hundredths of a second away in St. Pete (St. Petersburg). So, to finally get the pole, it means a ton, and I think, you know, I want to shout out to my crew, the pit bull here, the 28 car, the in-power car, you know, they’ve done a tremendous job. And even in this session, we were all over the place in Q1, but in Q2, Q3, we just improved the car, and it feels amazing.”
Marcus Ericsson – Java House Grand Prix of Arlington
This marked the introduction of single-car, single-lap qualifying in the Fast Six, with the slowest among those to advance out of the Round of 12 going first and moving up to the quickest.
Ericsson was the first to go out, equipped with a set of softer alternate ties on his #28 Andretti Global Honda, and set the initial time.
Reigning and four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou – the last driver to go out – was a distant second after throttling to a quick lap of 1m34.8180s, 0.4618s behind Ericsson.
Pato O’Ward went out fifth and appeared poised to challenge for pole, but was unable to deliver anything better than a flying lap of 1m34.8453s and claimed third.
The #26 Andretti Global Honda of Will Power, who was the third driver to go out, had a clean run to slot fourth after a best lap of 1m35.0856s.
A wider line through the Horseshoe complex by Felix Rosenqvist wasn’t enough to mount a charge, peddling Meyer Shank Racing’s (MSR) #60 Honda to a lap of 1m35.1607s to place fifth.
MSR’s Marcus Armstrong was the second driver to go out and struggled to put together enough pace to make a proper run at the top spot, rolling to lap of 1m35.6012s. He settled in sixth.
Round of 12
Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian
On a set of softs, Palou handed the field a 1m33.4049s lap to go through. He led O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Power, Armstrong and Ericsson.
Kyle Kirkwood had the fastest time on a set of primaries with a lap of 1m34.5205s but also made slight contact with the wall with his left-rear. Upon pitting to verify the significance, his Andretti crew swapped him to the softer rubber and sent him back out and he delivered a 1m33.8868s flyer to end up seventh and the first on the outside by 0.0415s to his teammate.
ECR’s Christian Rasmussen ended up eighth. David Malukas was Team Penske’s best qualifier, slotting his #12 Chevrolet ninth. Alexander Rossi’s #20 ECR Chevrolet was 10th.
Josef Newgarden, who had to pull out a backup car – his winning car from last weekend at Phoenix Raceway – after punching a hole in the tub on his practice crash this morning, fought into the top 12 but ended 11th. AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was 12th.
Groups
Mick Schumacher, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
The first group was led by Palou, who threw down the first stout lap of 1m33.7398s on a set of alternates. He led Rosenqvist, Rossi, Newgarden, Rasmussen and Ericsson.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s (RLL) Louis Foster was the first out, ending up seventh in the group. Romain Grosjean (Dale Coyne Racing) was directly behind, followed by rookies Mick Schumacher (RLL) and Dennis Hauger (Dale Coyne Racing). The Juncos Hollinger Racing duo of Rinus VeeKay and Sting Ray Robb were the bottom of the group.
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The biggest surprise from the second group happened with two minutes remaining as Scott McLaughlin clipped the inside wall of Turn 8 went straight into the outside wall with the left-front of his #3 Team Penske Chevrolet. The incident gave the remaining drivers one remaining lap to try and advance.
Kirkwood’s flyer of 1m33.9473s – on a set of harder primaries – that was set prior to McLaughlin’s crash ended up fastest, besting Malukas, Ferrucci, Armstrong, Power and O’Ward.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson was the first to miss the cut. AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet was eighth in the group, ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon. Nolan Siegel (Arrow McLaren) and Graham Rahal (RLL) ended up 11th and 12, respectively, in the second group.
Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global
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