Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard knocked teammate Pato O’Keep at bay the highest of the leaderboard on the final second to seize pole for Sunday’s IndyCar spherical at Mid-Ohio Sports activities Automobile Course.
After a delay of two hours, 33 minutes on account of repeated lightning delays, impending free agent Lundgaard saved his greatest for final and delivered a flying lap of 1m04.839s, dethroning O’Ward by 0.0253s on the two.258-mile, 13-turn natural-terrain highway course. It is the primary pole of the season for Lundgaard, and fourth of his profession.
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When requested by FOX Sports activities what message Lundgaard is sending about his talents getting into free company, he offered a brief response:
“I believe everyone is aware of, Lundgaard mentioned. “I believe everyone is aware of the talents, so I needn’t say greater than that.”
Quick Six
Christian Rasmussen put down the preliminary fast lap of 1m05.619 within the #21 ECR Chevrolet, however over the ultimate 30s of the spherical rivals started to knock out their respective fast instances.
Proper because the checkered flag waved on the session, O’Ward knocked off Rasmussen with a 1m04.864s. Nevertheless, O’Ward’s teammate Lundgaard was nonetheless on monitor and was the final driver to cross the road and went even faster along with his 1m04.839s flyer capable of vault to the highest.
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Andretti World’s Will Energy was 0.0382s off the highest mark to finish up third, with Staff Penske’s David Malukas in fourth at 0.0687s.
Rasmussen fell to fifth, forward of VeeKay in sixth.
Spherical of 12
The largest shock of the session got here within the Spherical of 12 as Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, winner of the final 5 consecutive poles, ended up eighth and was knocked out from advancing.
“I did an enormous mistake in Flip 1 on my first push lap after which could not actually put my greatest lap collectively,” Palou mentioned. “So yeah, it is a disgrace. We had a very quick automobile however I used to be simply attempting very onerous. I knew it was going to be very very tight, however I overdid it.”
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Malukas was the quickest within the spherical with a 1m04.709s flyer, which edged out Rasmussen by 0.1266s for the highest spot.
Lundgaard was third, forward of Energy in fourth, O’Ward in fifth, and VeeKay in sixth.
Andretti World’s Marcus Ericsson was the primary driver to be bumped out, lacking the switch spot to combat for pole by 0.0109s to finish up seventh, instantly forward of Palou.
Josef Newgarden (Staff Penske) was ninth, whereas Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti World) was tenth.
AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet ended up eleventh, with Graham Rahal’s #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) Honda in twelfth.
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Within the first group, Kirkwood delivered the monster flying lap of 1m04.893s to go to the highest of the board.
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Rasmussen was a distant second at 0.2419s behind, adopted by O’Ward in third. Malukas was fourth-fastest, with VeeKay shifting on in fifth. The ultimate switch spot went to Rahal.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist was the primary driver to overlook out on transferring by, lacking the minimize by a slender 0.0130s. The Swede was adopted by Nolan Siegel (Arrow McLaren), Scott McLaughlin (Staff Penske), and Louis Foster (RLL) ending up tenth.
Six-time IndyCar Sequence champion Scott Dixon ended up eleventh out of the group, which was impacting after Race Management handed out a penalty for qualifying interference for impeding Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean. Dixon misplaced his quickest two laps in consequence. Grosjean ended up twelfth – final – among the many first group.
Palou led the second group, hitting a fast lap of 1m04.865s with roughly 45s remaining. Lundgaard adopted up in second, simply 0.0496s. Ericsson slotted third, with Newgarden fourth, and Energy fifth. Collet secured the ultimate switch spot in sixth.
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Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb missed out by 0.080s to fit seventh, however will incur a six-spot grid penalty for an engine change. RLL Rookie Mick Schumacher was eighth, adopted by ECR’s Alexander Rossi, and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson.
Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) was eleventh, forward of Marcus Armstrong (Meyer Shank Racing), and rookie Dennis Hauger (Dale Coyne Racing).
Learn Additionally:
Amid ‘foolish season’ drama, Rinus VeeKay has “fairly good thought” of subsequent IndyCar transfer
Alex Palou ‘unhappy’ to see Scott Dixon depart Ganassi: “I would not be right here with out him”
How one can watch IndyCar 2026 at Mid-Ohio: Weekend schedule, begin time, TV
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