Rosenqvist on Texas IndyCar pole

Felix Rosenqvist has qualified on pole position for the Texas IndyCar race in a session in which both of his McLaren team-mates also made the top five.

The #6 Chevrolet of Rosenqvist, the #7 Chevrolet of Alexander Rossi, and the #5 Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward respectively will start on a very orange-looking inside of the first three rows.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon qualified second in the #9 Honda, with Josef Newgarden fourth in the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet and Takuma Sato sixth in his first start of 2023 in another Ganassi Honda.

The rest of the top 10 on the grid is Alex Palou (#10 Ganassi Honda), Will Power (#12 Penske Chevrolet), David Malukas (#18 Dale Coyne Racing w/ HMD Motorsport Honda), and Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda).

Scott McLaughlin (#3 Penske Chevrolet) will line up on the inside of Row 8 and series leader Marcus Ericsson (#8 Ganassi Honda) on the outside.

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Drivers were sent out in reverse entrant points order, with two warm-up laps before a two-lap run proper, of which the average speed determined qualifying results.

In his first event of the season, Ed Carpenter (#33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) kicked things off with a 218.375mph (351.441km/h) run, before rookie Benjamin Pedersen (#55 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet) set a 219.100mph (352.607km/h) average.

Devlin DeFrancesco (#29 Andretti Steinbrenner Honda) then went top with a 219.146mph (352.681km/h) run, which stood up to the efforts of the next four drivers before the Canadian was finally knocked off by team-mate Herta’s 219.184mph (352.743km/h).

Rosenqvist raised the bar with laps of 220.480mph (354.828km/h) and 220.048mph (354.133km/h) for an average of 220.264mph (354.481km/h), a figure which could not be beaten by the likes of 2022 Texas winner Newgarden nor St Petersburg pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (#28 Andretti Honda).

Newgarden was still second on a 219.801mph (353.735km/h) run when his Penske team-mate and practice fast man McLaughlin went out, but could only set an average of 218.765mph (352.068km/h) which was good enough for ninth at the time.

That left Sato third on a 219.508mph (353.264km/h) run and 12 more drivers to come.

Palou provisionally made it an all-Ganassi second row when he went 219.480mph (353.219km/h) before Power threatened to knock off Rosenqvist or at least join him on the front row.

The 2022 champion achieved a 220.076mph (354.178km/h) first lap but the #12 Penske Chevrolet hit the rev limiter twice on his second lap and his average dropped to 219.355mph (353.018km/h), which left him fifth.

Rossi made it a McLaren one-two when he clocked a 220.174mph (354.336km/h) and a 219.747mph (353.649km/h) for an average of 219.960mph (353.991km/h), with three cars to go.

The one-two lasted only a moment, with Dixon then wheeling the #9 Honda to a 220.255mph (354.466km/h) and 219.691mph (353.558km/h) run, averaging 219.972mph (354.011km/h).

O’Ward set an average of 216.619mph (348.615km/h) to go fifth and St Petersburg winner Ericsson finished off the session with a 218.698mph (351.960km/h).

Top Line Practice starts this morning at 03:45 AEST, and the Race itself tomorrow morning at 02:10 AEST, with both sessions streamed live, ad-free, and on-demand on Stan Sport.

Results: Qualifying