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Fast Six
Romain Grosjean went out on a sighting lap to check his crew’s repairs (see below) had got the job done, and then returned to the track to claim second fastest initially, behind pacesetter Pato O’Ward of the Arrow McLaren. Then, Alex Palou moved his Chip Ganassi Racing car to the top before being displaced by Grosjean, but the St. Pete polesitter’s 1m06.5347s wasn’t enough as he lost time at the hairpin.
With fresh tires at his disposal, Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood left it until the final two minutes to go P3, then P1, with a 1m06.2878s.
It was close though, as Marcus Ericsson of Ganassi was only 0.0375s behind, to score his first street/road course front row, shading his teammates Palou and Dixon.
O’Ward locked up under braking for Turn 9 and so one of the qualifying favorites missed out on his chance of Long Beach pole.
P
Name
FTime
Diff
FL
Laps
FSpeed
Engine
Team
1
Kyle Kirkwood
1:06.2878
–
4
4
106.879
Honda
Andretti Autosport
2
Marcus Ericsson
1:06.3253
0.0375
4
4
106.819
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
3
Romain Grosjean
1:0 …