Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood in the No.27 AutoNation Honda took his first career NTT P1 Award for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach after setting a time of 01:06.2878s.
Marcus Ericsson in the No.8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda starts the race second with a time of 01:06.3253s.
Romain Grosjean starts the race from third place with a time of 01:06.5347s.and starts the race just ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No.10 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda while Scott Dixon in the No.9 PNC Bank Honda starts the race from fifth place with a time of 01:06.5730s and starts the race just ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and speaking following the action he said:
“We sold ourselves short on that first attempt in Q2, which made us put on a second set of tires to end the session which meant we wouldn’t have a fresh set for Q3. That put us at a disadvantage with some of the other guys, especially Kyle Kirkwood. In Q3, I was on a good lap, not as good as what Kirkwood threw down. I knew I would have to bring out a mega lap on used tires in order to get Kirkwood. Obviously being a racing driver, I went for it and lost a little bit of time in Turn 9 being a little greedy, but we’re starting sixth tomorrow. We’ll give ourselves a good race car and we’ll see what we can pull off tomorrow.”
Colton Herta starts the race from seventh place with a time of 01:06.6431s and starts the race just ahead of Josef Newgarden in the No.2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet who set a time of 01:06.6452s.
Scott Mclaughlin starts the race from ninth with a time of 01:06.7251s while Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top ten speaking following the action the Swede said:
”P10 in qualifying for Long Beach. It’s one of those where I’m not super stoked but not super disappointed. I think it’s good that P10 means a bad day. We were looking really good, and then it was just a one-lap shoot out in the end, and we just couldn’t get the tires going. So we were just not quick enough in that shoot out, but I don’t think that represented our true pace. I think we’ll be strong in the race. In warm-up tomorrow, we’ll rebuild the car for race mode and see where we’re at.”
Alexander Rossi in the No.7 Chevrolet starts the race from the race in P11 and speaking following the action, he said:
”That was disappointing. I think we definitely had the potential to transfer to the Firestone Fast Six, but the timing of the red flag didn’t work out for us. Ultimately, we’re still a couple of changes away from where we want to be, but I think the team is showing good pace. We’re in a decent, acceptable spot for tomorrow, so we’ll try and make the most of it.”
Marcus Armstrong will start the race from 12th with a time of 01:09.7839s while Will Power in the No.12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet starts the race from P13 just ahead of Simon PAgenaud and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Jack Harvey in the No.30 Kustom Entertainment Honda who commented following the session saying:
Long Beach is such a track with momentum and confidence and if we’d have had that extra rear grip, that we thought the reds (alternate tires) would give us, we would’ve been able to just roll through the corner a little bit better and position the car a little bit better. But, we missed it by a half a tenth and I think compared to where we have been on other weekends, you’d have been happy about that. So, I do feel like, although that wasn’t the result that we wanted, overall, it’s been positive and a couple of small things would’ve made more than made a difference. I think it’s been a productive year and I don’t think we can let Texas determine the year. I credit everybody on the team for maintaining their good attitude and good general atmosphere because you can’t let that bleed into the weekend. The street circuit package has been pretty good that we drove in St. Pete. I think the race pace looks very strong and so hopefully although qualifying didn’t go well, tomorrow will be even better. Actually, my engineer, Allan, got me a birthday present that he can’t give me until about 2:30 pm tomorrow afternoon so I’m hoping it’s a race win.
Helio Castroneves starts the race from P16 just ahead of Christian Lundgaard who commented following the action saying:
We didn’t have the pace in qualifying unfortunately. We expected a little bit more progress from practice to qualifying. We are working hard to improve our package for the race. It will definitely be an interesting one as this race always is.”
Santino Ferrucci in the No.14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing starts the race from P18 just ahead of Rinus VeeKay and Devlin DeFrancesco while Sting Ray Robb starts the race from 21st place and speaking following the session he said:
“We just finished up qualifying. We’re making improvements, I’m learning a lot while we’re here. This track is all new to me so I’m just trying to figure out what I need from the car and what the car needs from me. We’re going to roll off pretty well tomorrow. We know what we’re capable of doing and I think we’ll be able to go forward in the field. We just have to stay clean and stay off the walls. (Thoughts on the Long Beach circuit) The track is pretty good, I have to say. There’s a lot of bumps and curves and curbs and everything else in between. It’s all the joys of a street course, it’s pretty exciting. It’s a handful, but I do enjoy it. It’s nice and flowing and has a good rhythm to it.”
Callum Ilott starts the race from 22nd just ahead of Benjamin Pedersen and Graham Rahal who commented:
We expected way more from qualifying after our performance in the practice sessions so I’m disappointed. Perhaps we were overconfident. Maybe we should have run alternate / alternate tires for the two runs instead of primary and alternate tires just to try to guarantee ourselves through to Round 2 but how do you know that is what would be best until after? We expected to be there but certainly had way too much understeer and on the one lap that was looking decent, it would have been P7 and not enough to advance but that was the optimum. This race is a wild card, and we’ll just see how it plays out.”
David Malukas starts the race from 25th place and speaking following the action he said:
“I’m OK, I have a little bit of a headache. It was unfortunate. It actually started on the previous lap. I went into Turn 9, we looked at the data and we knew we had to break a little bit deeper trying to catch up some time, compared to the top guys. So, I tried to break a little bit deeper. I ended up losing the car and tapped the wall on the left. I gave the car a bit of a shake going down the straight and everything felt OK, but clearly it wasn’t. Going into Turn 4, I hit the brakes and the rear end just whipped out on me and I couldn’t save it. I feel really bad. I feel sorry for the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD team. Obviously, it’s my mistake on my end.”
Agustin Canapino and Conor Daly round out the field and speaking following the action he said:
We did not have the speed at all today. There’s no way around it. Not really sure why both Rinus (VeeKay) and I are struggling, but we really need to make an improvement for tomorrow and just make some magic happen. Hopefully, we can take a big step forward at some point coming up soon on the schedule but for now it has been tough.”