LONG BEACH — Felix Rosenqvist is flirting with danger and success this NTT IndyCar Series season.
Rosenqvist produced the fastest lap Saturday during the Firestone Fast Six qualifying session and will start in pole position for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
“Every lap out here it feels like you’re flirting with the walls,” said Rosenqvist, who qualified second for the IndyCar Series opener in St. Petersburg, Fla. “It was a hard-fought one today and it doesn’t come easy.”
Rosenqvist, driver of the No. 60 Honda, delivered a 1 minute, 6.0172 second lap and was four-thousandths of a second faster than two-time IndyCar champion Will Power (1:06.0211) for the closest front-row margin in NTT IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Long Beach history.
“He’s the guy I grew up watching on YouTube, so it’s pretty cool,” Rosenqvist, 32, said of Power. “Huge respect for him. He’s the man.”
There have been only two tighter front rows in NTT IndyCar Series road course history – the 2022 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio and the 2023 GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis.
“It’s awesome and I’m really proud, but we still have the win to go get,” Rosenqvist said.
Rosenqvist was fastest during the first group of qualifiers (1:06.3372) and took more than three-tenths off that time in the Fast Six session.
“It was hard (and) I didn’t think that I had it, but it’s great to get the pole,” said Rosenqvist, who claimed the pole at last season’s finale at Laguna Seca and now has six career IndyCar Series poles.
Power, first all-time in IndyCar Series poles (70), also was second-fastest during practice Friday.
“There wasn’t much I left on the table,” Power said. “It just goes to show how good of a lap Felix did and how difficult it is out there.”
Power’s first IndyCar series win came at Long Beach in 2008, but the 41-year-old Australian hasn’t won a race since the 2022 Detroit Grand Prix.
“It’s been the story of my last two years, really,” Power said. “I feel like we’ve put in the work to be really fast this season (and) I’m feeling good because I’m going fast again.”
Josef Newgarden (1:06.1059), Colton Huerta (1:06.3784), Marcus Ericsson (1:06.4039) and Alex Palou (1:06.5444) will be in the first three rows for today’s race.
Newgarden, the pole and race winner at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg two weeks ago, won at Long Beach in 2022.
“You have to be perfect here, but it is so close and it just so competitive,” Newgarden said. “I’m disappointed, really, because this a track that I know.”
Palou was the only car under 1 minute, 6 seconds during qualifying, posting a 1:05.9103 in the second group of qualifiers.
Christian Lungaard, Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong line up seventh, eighth and ninth, and Kyle Kirkwood, last year’s race winner, did not qualify for the Fast Six and will start 10th Sunday.
“I’m not really happy with it,” Kirkwood said. “Just three-tenths is the difference between first and 10th (and) it’s going to be hard (Sunday) no matter where you’re starting.”
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Graham Rahal struggled with tire grip and qualified 12th. Alexander Rossi, a two-time winner at Long Beach in 2018 and ’19, will start 13th.
“We needed a lot more,” Rossi said. “We had some moments when it was OK but we were struggling for grip.”
Rookie Theo Pourchaire, 20, rubbed the wall coming out of Turn 5 during the second round of qualifying and lines up 22nd.
Coverage of the 40th Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 12:30 p.m. PT (NBC).