Rosenqvist beats Penske pair to give Meyer Shank first pole · RaceFans

Felix Rosenqvist put Meyer Shank on pole position for the Long Beach Grand Prix with his final lap of the qualifying session.

He denied Penske duo Josef Newgarden and Will Power, both of which had the chance to beat Rosenqvist’s time after he set it, but fell short by less than a tenth of a second.

Power will join Rosenqvist on the front row of the grid. He looked on course to pip his rival as he entered the final three turns, but crossed the line just 0.0039 seconds down. Moments earlier Newgarden fell short in his bid for pole after clipping the barrier at the exit of turn eight, enough to leave him eight hundredths of a second shy of Rosenqvist.

“I didn’t think I had it because I had a big tank-slapper out of [turn] five,” Rosenqvist admitted afterwards. “It doesn’t come easy here. Every lap out there you’re flirting with the wall.”

Colton Herta claimed fourth on the grid ahead of Andretti team mate Marcus Ericsson. Alex Palou, the only Ganassi driver to reach the Fast Six, took sixth.

Last year’s winner Kyle Kirkwood was on course to reach the Fast Six after setting the second-fastest time as the first runs were completed in the second round of qualifying. However he failed to improve enough on his subsequent laps and missed the cut. Scott McLaughlin also slipped out of the top six and failed to accompany his Penske team mates into the pole position shoot-out.

Ganassi duo Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong also went no further. Christian Lundgaard was bumped out at the end of the second session, joining team mate Graham Rahal in elimination.

The surprise of the first two groups was the failure of all three McLarens to progress. Alexander Rossi was seventh in the first round, missing the cut by a few hundredths of a second, and Pato O’Ward ended the second round in the same position, having been quickest in first practice. Newcomer Theo Pourchaire did a respectable job, lapping half a second off O’Ward.

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Qualifying times