McLaughlin qualifies 11th, Dixon 21st for the GMR Grand Prix

Scott McLaughlin will start 11th, with Scott Dixon in 21st for tomorrow morning’s Indycar GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

Group 1 

Dixon failed to advance out of group one, finishing 11th in the session setting a lap that was around half a second off the time set by Will Power. 

Power sat at the top of the timesheets at the end of the session with a 1.09.55 minute lap to sit ahead of Alex Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Josef Newgarden, Jack Harvey and Romain Grosjean, who progress to the Fast 12 session. 

Group 2 

McLaughlin set a 1.10.85 minute lap early in the Group 2 session to sit at the tip of the times after everyone completed their first run. 

By the end of the session, McLaughlin sat second just 0.08 seconds off the time set by Pato O’Ward. 

Alexander Rossi, Colton Herta, and Simon Pagenaud all finished outside the top six, meaning they wouldn’t advance to the Fast 12 session. 

Fast 12 

McLaughlin again sat second after the first run, though in the Fast 12 session it was teammate Will Power that topped the leaderboard with just 0.01 seconds separating the pair. 

Despite looking strong in the earlier sessions, McLaughlin didn’t set a lap on the final run that would see him advance out of the Fast 12, instead, he will start from 11th on the grid. 

“The snap-on chevy felt awesome, I just made one mistake on that first lap on red tyres, its key it’s just everything so, unfortunately, we did two laps and the second lap wasn’t quite fast enough and its so tight you can’t afford to let go of that,” McLaughlin said after the session. 

“I think we’ve got a fast car and it might rain tomorrow so well see.”

Palou was the fastest car at the end of the session ahead of Rosenqvist.

Fast 6 

Power was the last driver to complete his lap in the Fast 6 session, and it would put him to the top of the leaderboard to take pole position. 

Alex Palou will start second alongside Power, ahead of Newgarden and Conor Daly on row two, with O’Ward and Rosenqvist taking fifth and sixth on the grid.

The GMR Grand Prix will get underway at 7 am tomorrow morning.

_{Main image: Chris Jones}