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Indy 500 starting grid: Palou on pole, 33-car field in full

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou will start from pole position in the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday 28 May, after qualifying at a speed of 234.217mph.

Watch: Indy 500: Alex Palou beats Rinus VeeKay to pole by 0.006mph

The 26-year-old Spaniard will lead the 33-car field to the green flag for a three-wide rolling start across 11 rows for the 200-lap, 500-mile race.

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay will start from the middle of the front row, with Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist on the outside.

Indy 500 starting grid: Palou on pole from VeeKay

Pos

Driver 

Car/Engine 

4-lap Time 

Mph 

1

10 

Alex Palou

Dallara/Honda

2'33.7037

234.217

2

21 

Rinus VeeKay

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'33.7077

234.211

3

Felix Rosenqvist

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'33.7713

234.114

4

14 

Santino Ferrucci

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.0695

233.661

5

Pato O'Ward

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.4015

233.158

6

Scott Dixon

Dallara/Honda

2'34.4066

233.151

7

Alexander Rossi

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.4332

233.110

8

11 

Takuma Sato

Dallara/Honda

2'34.4416

233.098

9

66 

Tony Kanaan

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.4558

233.076

10

Marcus Ericsson

Dallara/Honda

2'34.5801

232.889

11

55 

Benjamin Pedersen

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.7246

232.671

12

12 

Will Power

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.7488

232.635

13

33 

Ed Carpenter

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.7128

232.689

14

Scott McLaughlin

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.7206

232.677

15

27 

Kyle Kirkwood

Dallara/Honda

2'34.7311

232.662

16

20 

Conor Daly

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.8833

232.433

17

Josef Newgarden

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'34.9039

232.402

18

23 

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'35.0837

232.133

19

28 

Romain Grosjean

Dallara/Honda

2'35.1744

231.977

20

06 

Helio Castroneves

Dallara/Honda

2'35.2032

231.954

21

26 

Colton Herta

Dallara/Honda

2'35.2055

231.951

22

60 

Simon Pagenaud

Dallara/Honda

2'35.2539

231.878

23

18 

David Malukas

Dallara/Honda

2'35.3270

231.769

24

98 

Marco Andretti

Dallara/Honda

2'35.3857

231.682

25

24 

Stefan Wilson

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'35.4083

231.648

26

29 

Devlin DeFrancesco

Dallara/Honda

2'35.6061

231.353

27

78 

Agustin Canapino

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'35.6287

231.320

28

77 

Callum Ilott

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'35.7212

231.182

29

50 

RC Enerson

Dallara/Chevrolet

2'35.7574

231.129

30

44 

Katherine Legge

Dallara/Honda

2'35.7971

231.070

31

45 

Christian Lundgaard

Dallara/Honda

2'36.7607

229.649

32

51 

Sting Ray Robb

Dallara/Honda

2'36.8293

229.549

33

30 

Jack Harvey

Dallara/Honda

2'37.0916

229.166

Not qualified

34

15 

Graham Rahal

Dallara/Honda

2'37.0960

229.159

What happened in Fast Six qualifying?

Palou completed his four-lap qualifying run in Sunday evening’s Fast Six qualifying session around the 2.5-mile oval at 2m33.7037s. He was 0.004s fastest than VeeKay, which equates to 0.006mph.

Palou’s opening lap of 235.131mph proved to be crucial, as his following three laps were all marginally slower than VeeKay’s. However, the 0.112mph extra speed he carried on his first lap over VeeKay gave him the crucial advantage, despite Rinus’s faster Turn 1 speed trap of 240.851mph to Palou’s 239.722mph.

Rosenqvist was third fastest at 234.114mph, despite topping the previous Q1 and Q2 sessions. Santino Ferrucci, who ran high at Turn 1 on his opening lap for AJ Foyt Racing, was a disappointed fourth, ahead of Pato O’Ward (McLaren) and Scott Dixon (Ganassi).

Indy 500 Fast Six qualifying times: Palou takes pole

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'33.7037 234.217
2 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 2'33.7077 0.0040 0.0040 234.211
3 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
Arrow McLaren 2'33.7713 0.0676 0.0636 234.114
4 United States Santino Ferrucci
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 2'34.0695 0.3658 0.2982 233.661
5 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren 2'34.4015 0.6978 0.3320 233.158
6 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.4066 0.7029 0.0051 233.151

What happened in Indy 500 Top 12 qualifying?

Rosenqvist set the Q2 pace on Sunday afternoon at 234.081mph, ahead of Ferrucci, VeeKay and Palou.

Eliminated at this point were Alexander Rossi (McLaren), Takuma Sato (Ganassi), Tony Kanaan (McLaren), Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), Benjamin Pedersen (Foyt) and Will Power (Penske).

Indy 500 Top 12 qualifying times: Rosenqvist fastest from Ferrucci

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
Arrow McLaren 2'33.7927 234.081
2 United States Santino Ferrucci
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 2'33.9048 0.1121 0.1121 233.911
3 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 2'33.9772 0.1845 0.0724 233.801
4 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'33.9916 0.1989 0.0144 233.779
5 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.2215 0.4288 0.2299 233.430
6 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren 2'34.3549 0.5622 0.1334 233.229
7 United States Alexander Rossi
Arrow McLaren 2'34.4332 0.6405 0.0783 233.110
8 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.4416 0.6489 0.0084 233.098
9 Brazil Tony Kanaan
Arrow McLaren 2'34.4558 0.6631 0.0142 233.076
10 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.5801 0.7874 0.1243 232.889
11 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 2'34.7246 0.9319 0.1445 232.671
12 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 2'34.7488 0.9561 0.0242 232.635

What happened in Indy 500 Day 1 qualifying?

Saturday’s six-hour qualifying session set the grid from P13-P30. Rosenqvist was fastest at 233.947mph ahead of Rossi.

Knocked out at this point were Ed Carpenter (ECR), Scott McLaughlin (Penske), Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Autosport), Conor Daly (ECR), Josef Newgarden (Penske), Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer and Reinbold), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), Colton Herta (Andretti), Simon Pagenaud (MSR), David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing), Marco Andretti (Andretti), Stefan Wilson (D&R), Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti), Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino and Callum Ilott, RC Enerson (Abel Motorsports) and Katherine Legge (Rahal Letterman Lanigan).

The slowest four cars were consigned to the Last-Chance qualifying session.

Indy 500 Day 1 qualifying times: Rosenqvist fastest from Rossi

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
Arrow McLaren 2'33.8810 233.947
2 United States Alexander Rossi
Arrow McLaren 2'34.1569 0.2759 0.2759 233.528
3 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.2432 0.3622 0.0863 233.398
4 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 2'34.2449 0.3639 0.0017 233.395
5 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.2584 0.3774 0.0135 233.375
6 Brazil Tony Kanaan
Arrow McLaren 2'34.2768 0.3958 0.0184 233.347
7 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.2932 0.4122 0.0164 233.322
8 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren 2'34.3394 0.4584 0.0462 233.252
9 United States Santino Ferrucci
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 2'34.4093 0.5283 0.0699 233.147
10 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 2'34.4866 0.6056 0.0773 233.030
11 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 2'34.6797 0.7987 0.1931 232.739
12 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 2'34.6932 0.8122 0.0135 232.719
13 United States Ed Carpenter
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 2'34.7128 0.8318 0.0196 232.689
14 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
United States Team Penske 2'34.7206 0.8396 0.0078 232.677
15 United States Kyle Kirkwood
United States Andretti Autosport 2'34.7311 0.8501 0.0105 232.662
16 United States Conor Daly
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 2'34.8833 1.0023 0.1522 232.433
17 United States Josef Newgarden
United States Team Penske 2'34.9039 1.0229 0.0206 232.402
18 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
United States Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 2'35.0837 1.2027 0.1798 232.133
19 France Romain Grosjean
United States Andretti Autosport 2'35.1744 1.2934 0.0907 231.997
20 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Meyer Shank Racing 2'35.2032 1.3222 0.0288 231.954
21 United States Colton Herta
United States Andretti Autosport 2'35.2055 1.3245 0.0023 231.951
22 France Simon Pagenaud
United States Meyer Shank Racing 2'35.2539 1.3729 0.0484 231.878
23 United States David Malukas
United States Dale Coyne Racing 2'35.3270 1.4460 0.0731 231.769
24 United States Marco Andretti
Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 2'35.3857 1.5047 0.0587 231.682
25 United Kingdom Stefan Wilson
United States Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 2'35.4083 1.5273 0.0226 231.648
26 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
United States Andretti Autosport 2'35.6061 1.7251 0.1978 231.353
27 Argentina Agustin Canapino
United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 2'35.6287 1.7477 0.0226 231.320
28 United Kingdom Callum Ilott
United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 2'35.7212 1.8402 0.0925 231.182
29 United States R.C. Enerson
Abel Motorsports 2'35.7574 1.8764 0.0362 231.129
30 United Kingdom Katherine Legge
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 2'35.7971 1.9161 0.0397 231.070
31 Denmark Christian Lundgaard
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 2'35.8067 1.9257 0.0096 231.056
32 United Kingdom Jack Harvey
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 2'36.4549 2.5739 0.6482 230.098
33 Ray Robb
United States Dale Coyne Racing 2'36.5526 2.6716 0.0977 229.955
34 United States Graham Rahal
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 2'37.5311 3.6501 0.9785 228.526

What happened in Indy 500 Last-Chance qualifying?

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was fastest at 229.649mph, ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s rookie Sting Ray Robb and Jack Harvey (RLLR).

Harvey bumped team-mate Graham Rahal from the starting field on his very last run of the hour-long session.

Indy 500 Last-Chance qualifying results: Lundgaard fastest, Rahal bumped

Pos

Driver 

Car/Engine 

4-lap Time 

Mph 

45

Christian Lundgaard

Dallara/Honda

2'36.7607

229.649

51

Sting Ray Robb

Dallara/Honda

2'36.8293

229.549

30

Jack Harvey

Dallara/Honda

2'37.0916

229.166

DNQ

15

Graham Rahal

Dallara/Honda

2'37.0960

229.159

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