Rossi Claims First IndyCar Pole Since 2019 At Road America
Calum Gill 20:26 11/06/2022
Alexander Rossi claimed a first IndyCar pole position in three years at Road America, maintaining his stout form for Andretti Autosport this year to beat Josef Newgarden by just 0.072 seconds.
Rossi used an epic three-stop strategy to finish second in Detroit last time out and was fifth in the Indianapolis 500 before that, giving him momentum heading to Elkhart Lake - the track where his last IndyCar win came back in 2019. He topped the first practice of the weekend then on the morning of qualifying his car failed to start in practice two, but he never let that impact him. Driving relaxed with his future decided in favour of an Arrow McLaren SP contract for next season, Rossi was fast in all three qualifying segments and made the bold call alongside team-mate Colton Herta to complete the Fast Six on the hard tyre instead of the soft. It’s Rossi’s first pole since the 2019 Detroit event. He and Herta delivered a host of rapid laps but Herta hit an issue on his last one and only took fifth.
Instead, last year’s polesitter Newgarden was Rossi’s closest challenger, and although he executed the hard tyre strategy to take pole last year, he went with the softs this time and missed out by less than a tenth. It was “pretty stout” for Rossi to do that time on the hards reckoned Penske driver Newgarden. Reigning champion and last year’s Road America winner Álex Palou took third, ahead of his Ganassi team-mate and Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson. Palou tried the hard tyre strategy with Ericsson on the softs. Behind Herta, Pato O’Ward had a huge lock-up on his fast lap at Canada Corner on the soft tyres and will start sixth. Romain Grosjean did a phenomenal lap on the softs even though he was unable to advance to the Fast Six.
Grosjean was slow to start the session due to an issue in the pits where he beat his steering wheel in anger, perhaps prophesying the impact it would have on his session having been fastest in his first group. An in-form Felix Rosenqvist was another driver sad to miss out on the Fast Six for Arrow McLaren SP, but onboards of his sideways wagon and his epic car control made eighth a good starting position still. Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon made it two Kiwis rounding out the top 10 with Simon Pagenaud and Callum Ilott concluding the Fast 12. Ilott crashed early in the session, carrying too much speed into Turn 14, with his Juncos Dallara showing the strength of the DW12 chassis as it returned to the pits basically unharmed after a hard hit into the tyre barrier.
Christian Lundgaard was the first driver to miss out on the Fast 12, by just 0.011 seconds, in an improved session for at least one of the struggling Rahal Letterman Lanigan team. David Malukas missed out by 0.039 seconds in the second group to start 14th in another incredibly close session. Will Power was the big loser from the first group as the points leader could only manage 15th after wheelspin in Turn 12 with rain sprinkling. He said he really needed to get a handle on qualifying, although he has scored fourth from 19th at Barber and won from 16th at Detroit last time out.
Rinus VeeKay had a real struggle in that first group, the Barber polesitter using two sets of softs in the first session instead of the usual one set, but still he couldn’t advance and starts 17th. In its season debut, Paretta Autosport will start 27th and last after a difficult session that included a pitlane speeding violation after trouble with the limiter for Simona De Silvestro.
