After two practice sessions, it was time for qualifying. For the third race in a row, Álex Palou secured the NTT P1 Award. Meyer Shank Racing continued to show their pace throughout the stages. Find out more about qualifying for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America here.
Malukas is flying.
It was relatively calm this first competitive session of the day, with no crashes and no impeding. That does not mean there was no action. Everyone was flying, and Caio Collet had the fastest Sector 2 out of everyone in the group. In the end, it was David Malukas who got the fastest time out of everyone. He set a lap time of 1:43.638.
Heartbreak for Grosjean.
Group 2 was yet another action filled session, with a couple of big names in this group. The first run was very calm with no drama. After that, Christian Rasmussen was leading, and a couple of the big names were not in the Top 6. There was no Scott Dixon, Will Power or Pato O’Ward. In the second runs, Romain Grosjean had a little moment, where he touched the grass, which cost him his spot in the Top 6. Palou lead this group with a time of 1:43.498.
Meyer Shank Racing is here to stay.
The start of the Top 12 was very calm, no big struggles for everyone. In the second half is where everyone all went out. Collet had some little moments in his final two laps, which cost him a place in the Firestone Fast 6. Marcus Armstrong was the first driver this session to break the 1:43 mark.
Only Malukas and Felix Rosenqvist were faster when the checkered flag fell. The last one to cross to get the checkered flag this session was Santino Ferrucci, and he missed out on advancing by just 0.025 seconds. The six drivers through to the Firestone Fast 6 are Malukas, Rosenqvist, Armstrong, Palou, Marcus Ericsson and Scott McLaughlin.
Malukas does it differently.
In the first four minutes only McLaughlin went out on track to set a banker lap. He ended up having a moment in his warm up lap where he hit the grass, and he ended up qualifying in P6. Armstrong has been strong all qualifying so he was looking like a very strong contender for pole. So was the other Meyer Shank Racing car of Rosenqvist. Both ended up qualifying on the second row in that order.
Malukas was on a different strategy then everyone else, he decided to do one push lap. It did pay out for him as he qualified second. The man on pole, Palou, had two push laps that would’ve put him on pole. Which is mind blowing in and of itself, but with the fact in mind that this is his fifth consecutive pole since Alex Zanardi (last four races in ‘96 and first race in ‘97) puts another beautiful layer to this pole. Alex Zanardi also did his pole run in a Chip Ganassi Racing car.
What will happen during the race, will Palou convert his pole to a win, or will Malukas or the MSR cars throw some dirt on his party? Find out tomorrow at Road America at 13:00 ET/19:00 CEST.