McLaughlin on Portland IndyCar pole, Ganassi big guns fail to clear Q1

Scott McLaughlin has qualified on pole position at Portland while Chip Ganassi Racing’s two biggest IndyCar title hopes will start deep in the field.

As it had done in Practice 2, Team Penske swept the top three, with McLaughlin heading Josef Newgarden and Will Power this time around, but Newgarden’s six-position grid penalty means it will be Cars #3 and #12 on the front row tomorrow.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing rookie Christian Lundgaard qualified fourth-fastest, ahead of Ganassi’s Alex Palou and McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward.

Palou is fifth in the series standings at 43 points behind leader Power, but the Ganassi drivers in third and fourth on the table had shocking Saturday afternoons.

Scott Dixon qualified 16th and Marcus Ericsson 18th, putting them on the back foot ahead of the penultimate race of the season whereas Power will have fresh air ahead of him for the start and Newgarden will still be on Row 4 despite his penalty.

The first two segments followed the usual pattern of a primary tyre banker run and then an alternate tyre run, while all six drivers in the Fast Six opted for used alternates.

Only Lundgaard and Palou went out initially, setting a 0:58.7347s and a 0:59.4992s respectively, before Newgarden split them on a 0:58.7683s on his second flyer of the segment.

Power moved to the top with a 0:58.4254s on his second flyer but was usurped by Newgarden on a 0:58.3645s and then McLaughlin on a 0:58.2349s.

With the chequered flag out, Power had a big slide at Turn 6 and failed to go any quicker, while Newgarden improved his time but not his position in clocking a 0:58.3129s.

McLaughlin therefore took pole and the series point that comes with it, meaning he is now 53 behind Power with that many on offer in tomorrow’s race.

Lundgaard ended up fourth on a 0:58.4482s and Palou fifth on a 0:58.5075s, with O’Ward rounding out the top six on a 0:58.6090s.

Earlier, in Round 2 of Qualifying, Newgarden set the pace on a 0:57.9651s, while Palou was last to advance on a 0:58.3381s.

Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren SP) qualified seventh at just 0.0094s further back and will line up on Row 3 due to the penalty for Newgarden, who will share Row 4 with Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian).

Ninth went to Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport), ahead of David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing w/ HMD Motorsports), Graham Rahal (RLLR), and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing).

Back in Round 1, Newgarden topped Group 1 on a 0:58.0433s but the big story was that of Herta, who pitted with heavy right-hand down after hitting the fence on the inside of Turn 1 on his black tyre run.

The Andretti crew changed the toe link and the American was able to get through by salvaging fifth on a 0:58.3020s, bumping Kyle Kirkwood (AJ Foyt Racing), while his team-mate Romain Grosjean ended the stanza in eighth and hence will take up 15th on the grid.

However, Group 2 was the one to watch considering it contained four of the top five in the series standings.

Power looked in slight bother until he clocked a 0:57.9266s on his red tyre run which would be good enough for second in the end.

Then, with Ericsson sitting sixth, the Swede was bumped by Dixon with the chequered flag out, only for the six-time champion to himself be knocked back out of the top six when Lundgaard jumped to the top on a 0:57.9218s.

Both would be pushed back another row when Rosenqvist moved up to fifth for the stanza, meaning Dixon will start 16th and Ericsson 18th.

Final Practice takes place today from 09:15 AEST, and the 110-lap Race tomorrow at 05:30 AEST.

Stan Sport’s live and ad-free coverage resumes on Monday morning at 05:00 AEST.

Results: Qualifying