A six-position grid penalty for an unapproved engine change didn’t stop Christian Lundgaard from setting the fastest lap in the final round of qualifying for Sunday’s (Aug. 10) BITNILE Grand Prix of Portland for the NTT IndyCar Series.
The Danish racer set a fastest lap of 58.3939 seconds to average 121.081 mph around the 12-turn, 1.967-mile natural terrain road course.
Teammate Pato O’Ward was second fastest but will start on pole after Lundgaard’s penalty.
“Honestly as I crossed the line I still didn’t really expect it,” Lundgaard said. “I just felt like I had a big push in turn 5, a big push in turn 6, and I knew I was slower than the Fast 12, so I didn’t really think that was it. But we were discussing this and this was kind of the best case scenario for, us obviously, with the six-place grid penalty. But I’m just proud of this team.”
Felix Rosenqvist was third fastest in the final round of qualifying,while championship leader Alex Palou had an issue of his own that affected his final round of qualifying.
Firestone Fast Six
Palou went off track heading to the final corner and locked up his tires, lightly hitting the tire barrier in the process. Because Palou caused a local yellow, the Spaniard lost his best lap time to that point in the session.
“Just tried a bit too hard,” Palou said on pit road after qualifying ended. “We wanted that pole, we knew that it was going to be tight. I think I started locking quite early on, and then I couldn’t really get the car stopped, and glad I didn’t break anything on the car and that I could continue. Sorry if I disturbed somebody on qualifying, I know it’s frustrating.
“Anyway I was trying, I was trying my best, I was trying to go as fast as possible, went a little bit too hard, but happy that we’re in the Fast Six, happy that we’re starting top six tomorrow and yeah, ready to go for it.”
After his lap time deletion, Palou ran one more lap in the time remaining but could not improve his position. He’ll start fifth after Lundgaard’s engine-change penalty.
| Position | Driver | Number | Team | Time from Leader |
| 1. | Christian Lundgaard | No. 7 | Arrow McLaren Chevrolet | 58.3939s |
| 2. | Pato O’Ward | No. 5 | Arrow McLaren Chevrolet | +0.1404s |
| 3. | Felix Rosenqvist | No. 60 | Meyer Shank Racing Honda | +01644s |
| 4. | Will Power | No. 12 | Team Penske Chevrolet | +0.2485s |
| 5. | David Malukas | No. 4 | AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet | +0.2618s |
| 6. | Alex Palou | No. 10 | Chip Ganassi Racing Honda | +0.2751s |
Round 2
Alexander Rossi was the last driver across the alternate timing line and lost enough time exiting turn 7 to drop him from advancing to the Firestone Fast Six.
“I think ultimately it was a really good day for us,” Rossi said. “It was a very trying month of July for a lot of different reasons that we don’t need to get into, so it was good to come out of that week off and reset and roll off the truck strong. So a huge thank you to the [Ed Carpenter Racing] organization for that.”
| Position | Driver | Number | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 7. | Alexander Rossi | No. 20 | Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet | +0.0163s |
| 8.. | Marcus Armstrong | No. 66 | Meyer Shank Racing Honda | +0.051s |
| 9. | Josef Newgarden | No. 2 | Team Penske Chevrolet | +0.215s |
| 10. | Scott Dixon | No. 9 | Chip Ganassi Racing Honda | +0.2636s |
| 11. | Marcus Ericsson | No. 28 | Andretti Global Honda | +0.2673s |
| 12 | Kyffin Simpson | No. 8 | Chip Ganassi Racing Honda | +0.2905s |
Round 1, Group 1
Robert Shwartzman brought out the red flag with just over a minute to go and when the green flag came out, Palou and Power did not go out with the rest of the field and comfortably advanced from the comforts of pit road. Kyffin Simpson split Palou (first) and Power (third), while Marcus Armstrong, Rossi and David Malukas also advanced.
| Position | Driver | Number | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 13. | Scott McLaughlin | No. 3 | Team Penske Chevrolet | +0.0848s |
| 15. | Santino Ferrucci | No. 14 | A. J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet | +0.1636s |
| 17. | Louis Foster | No. 45 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda | +0.1775s |
| 19. | Nolan Siegel | No. 6 | Arrow McLaren Chevrolet | +0.2504s |
| 21. | Sting Ray Robb | No. 77 | Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet | +0.4671s |
| 23. | Rinus VeeKay | No. 18 | Dale Coyne Racing Honda | +0.6265s |
| 25. | Robert Shwartzman | No. 83 | PREMA Chevrolet | +1.2857s |
Round 1, Group 2
Josef Newgarden pushed himself into the second round of qualifying with the final lap of the session, knocking Devlin DeFrancesco out of the Fast 12 session.
Colton Herta was a shocking exit after turning the fastest lap in the second practice session of the weekend.
“The balance felt OK; the lap time just wasn’t coming through the lap,” Herta said on pit road. “I think we’re just missing a bit of overall grip, because it seemed a lot happier on the blacks this morning, and the time was coming a lot easier. And then going to this session on the reds, we just can’t make the time. Little bit of a weird one.
“That’s really upsetting, though, especially from the pace that we had this morning. Kind of difficult to pass here, so it sucks when you start that far back, but there’s plenty of opportunities in this race, it has huge windows for strategists to do their thing and try to get us in a good spot.”
| Position | Driver | Number | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 14. | Devlin DeFrancesco | No. 30 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda | +0.0625s |
| 16. | Colton Herta | No. 26 | Andretti Global Honda | +0.1235s |
| 18. | Christian Rasmussen | No. 21 | Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet | +0.138s |
| 20. | Kyle Kirkwood | No. 27 | Andretti Global Honda | +0.1616s |
| 22. | Graham Rahal | No. 15 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda | +0.1759s |
| 24. | Callum Ilott | No. 90 | PREMA Chevrolet | +0.348s |
| 26. | Conor Daly | No. 76 | Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet | +0.554s |
| 27. | Jacob Abel | No. 51 | Dale Coyne Racing Honda | +0.5571s |
The Grand Prix of Portland is set for Sunday, Aug. 10, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.