Front-Row Start for Rossi, Honda at the Gallagher Grand Prix
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
・Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi will start second in Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
・Christian Lundgaard advances to final qualifying for the first time, will start sixth
Alexander Rossi led the way for Honda today in qualifying for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and will start on the front row, second in his Andretti Autosport Honda.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard also advanced through all three rounds of NTT INDYCAR SERIES “knockout” qualifying, and will start sixth, best among the rookies in the field. Other Honda drivers to advance out of first round qualifying today on the 2.439-mile Indy road course include defending series champion Alex Palou, who will start seventh; Colton Herta in ninth; rookie David Malukas in 11th and Simon Pagenaud, 12th.
Fast Facts
・The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the Gallagher Grand Prix, the second race of the 2022 season to be held on the 2.439-mile infield road course at IMS.
・Honda-powered Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson returns to IMS leading the Drivers’ Championship with 403 points to 395 for his closest rival, Will Power.
・Other Honda drivers in the top 10 coming to Indianapolis include Ericsson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and six-time series champion, Scott Dixon, fourth with 369 points; defending series champion Alex Palou, sixth with 359 points; Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, eighth with 278 points; and Alexander Rossi, 10th with 265 points.
・Honda’s most recent win on the IMS road course came in May, as Colton Herta bested the field despite constantly changing weather conditions and a wet/dry/wet track to win the GMR Grand Prix on May 14.
It's far and away our best qualifying result we've had here as a team, so I'm thankful to all the guys for the effort. We had a really good test here and I'm just really glad that that translated to our pace for the race weekend. Grateful to have Honda power behind me and it should be a good race tomorrow.
This place is my new home. As it was my first appearance last year, there's just some sort of magic with me and this track. I'm hoping I don't get food poisoning this year for sure! I don't want to replicate that from last year! At our May race [earlier this year], I think we had a better race car than we ended up showing, I think our race car was quite good. But I think as a team we perform well here and we have to figure out why that is. But, it's great to be in the fast six!
