Grosjean claims his third IndyCar pole in Barber qualifying

Romain Grosjean became IndyCar’s first repeat pole winner in 2023 with his third career pole, beating 2021 winner Alex Palou to the honour.

Grosjean was on pole at the Indy road course in 2021 and at St Petersburg earlier this year, the latter he was set to win before being wiped out by Scott McLaughlin.

He had missed much of the first practice session with an engine issue, but rebounded and was clearly the top Andretti car in qualifying.

He delivered two session-topping laps in the Fast Six to see off Palou by just 0.0734s.

Grosjean’s also the eighth different pole winner in a row at the Alabama track.

Pato O’Ward, last year’s winner, took third for Arrow McLaren, ahead of Penske’s top charger Scott McLaughlin.

Scott Dixon set the trend of grabbing banker laps on used soft tyres rather than used hards which is the IndyCar norm, and he managed fifth, ahead of Christian Lundgaard.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan has had a really tough start to the season, but Lundgaard gives the team hope at the venue he had his first IndyCar test and impressed the team at.

The top six was split by just 0.3205s.

Three-time race winner Josef Newgarden was pushed out of the Fast Six by his team-mate and YouTube series co-host Scott McLaughlin with the absolute last lap of Q2.

A clearly angry Newgarden regretted a different tyre warm-up procedure and missed out by 0.0617s.

Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist took eighth with last year’s pole-sitter Rinus VeeKay going off at Turn 2 on his final lap condemning him to ninth. He admitted to ignoring a gentleman’s agreement for overtaking on the out-lap which likely upset Will Power.

Tensions are high in qualifying at Barber!@12WillPower frustrated after this traffic jam with @rinusveekay and @smclaughlin93.#INDYCAR // #INDYBHM pic.twitter.com/phBxeSy0cz

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 29, 2023

“But am I a Gentleman…?” 🧐@rinusveekay weighs in on his close call with @12WillPower during today’s qualifying session.#INDYCAR // #INDYBHM pic.twitter.com/UoFbeoiytu

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 29, 2023

Rosenqvist’s team-mate Alexander Rossi – not liking a change on his car for the last run – rounded out the top 10 ahead of Power, who went off at Turn 5 on his last flyer and lamented his engine performance.

Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood spun at Turn 1 on his out-lap of his last attempt with a “dumb” mistake that cost him part of the aero on his floor, which meant he was the last driver in Q2 in 12th.

Issues for @KKirkwoodRacing in qualifying.#INDYCAR // #INDYBHM pic.twitter.com/nXFSLiRGBC

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 29, 2023

It was a strong group of drivers missing out on graduating from the first two qualifying groups, the first of which was Ganassi’s championship leader Marcus Ericsson who will start 13th after being bumped out at the last possible second by Romain Grosjean.

Rookie Marcus Armstrong should have been just behind Ganassi team-mate Marcus Ericsson in 14th but lost his two fastest laps for holding up Lundgaard while on a warm-up lap. He’ll now start 25th in what is an extremely costly penalty.

"What is this guy doing?!"@MarcusArmstrng received a penalty for interference following this incident with @lundgaardoff.

The No. 11 has lost the two fastest laps.#INDYCAR // #INDYBHM pic.twitter.com/UuJq2u4OYp

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 29, 2023

Colton Herta starts 14th instead, struggling to extract the time of his team-mates.

Callum Ilott will start 15th as he looks to bounce back from a tough Long Beach at a track he qualified 11th on last year, which was his best qualifying in IndyCar to that point.

Qualifying Results