Felix Rosenqvist took the pole for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, but it was Christian Lundgaard who broke the 23-year-old lap record during a wild qualifying session at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday.
Appearing in his final race with Arrow McLaren, Rosenquist’s final round lap of 1:06.6 in the No. 6 Chevrolet edged Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and his No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet by a hundredth in a session marked by dust clouds and red flags as cars spun from the fast but narrow groove on the newly repaved surface.
“Oh, man, this track is something else,” says Rosenqvist, who will join Meyer Shank Racing after Sunday’s race. “I think it's been the topic of the weekend–just the grip out there, the anti-grip off the line.”
McLaughlin was quick throughout the three qualifying rounds and appeared set to grab the pole. But in a fast lap as time ran down he dropped a wheel into the sand off Turn 10. The mistake cost him a fraction–and top spot for the race.
“It’s tremendously loose offline,” he explains. “I said to myself I didn’t want to be on the outside of Turn 1 [to start Sunday’s race] and I’m on the outside of Turn 1.”
A mistake also proved costly to Lundgaard in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda from the Rahal Letterman Lanigan stable. He had established a new track record and may have been able to shave another fraction from his time during the final round of qualifying. But as time wound down, Lundgaard got crossed up entering the Corkscrew and went bounding through the rough pavement off track.
Lundgaard’s time of 1:06.7 puts him in the third slot for Sunday’s green flag. In the second round of the tiered qualifying format, however, he recorded a lap of 1:06.4–more than a second quicker than the previous mark of 1:07.7 set in 2000 by Helio Castroneves.
“I don’t think we expected to do this,” Lundgaard told reporters. “It’s pretty cool to have the track record here. The track is just awesome.”
Castroneves had his lap times deleted due to an infraction and will start last in the field on Sunday.
How will the race play out when the green drops sometime after noon on Sunday, Sept. 10? There is speculation that the number of off-track excursions during practice and qualifying indicates that yellow flags will be a factor.
“It’s going to be an interesting race,” McLaughlin says. “When we have heaps of red flags in practice, we’ll run green flag-to-flag. You just never know with drivers, really. You just don’t know.”