Patricio O'Ward snatched his sixth career pole position with a lap of 99.9567 seconds around the Thermal Club circuit, and O'Ward will lead an all-Arrow McLaren front row to the green flag for the Thermal Grand Prix. Christian Lundgaard took second spot ending up 0.1678 seconds off his teammate. For O'Ward, it is his first pole position since Mid-Ohio 2022, 43 races ago. In four of his five pole position starts, the Mexican driver has finished in the top five. He has finished second, third, fourth and fifth from the first starting spot. O'Ward's other finish was 24th after a fuel pressure issue in that 2022 Mid-Ohio race. While O'Ward won at Mid-Ohio last season, his average finish on natural-terrain road courses was 11.333 and his next best result was eighth.
Christian Lundgaard ending up second makes this Arrow McLaren's first front row lockout ever in IndyCar, whether dating back to this organization's origins as FAZZT Race Team or McLaren's first foray into American open-wheel racing in the 1970s. This will be the fifth time Lundgaard has started on the front row in his career. The Dane has finished in the top five every time he has started on the front row in his career. Lundgaard has never finished better than 19th in the second race of the season.
Álex Palou was 0.3525 seconds off O'Ward, and Palou will start third. Palou is attempting to become the first driver to win consecutive races to open a season since his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon did it in 2020. The earliest Palou has won two races in a season is seven rounds, which he did in 2023. Palou's 12 victories for Ganassi is the fourth-most in team history behind Dixon (57), Alex Zanardi (15) and Dario Franchitti (13).
Colton Herta is on the outside of the second row. The California-native was 0.4411 seconds off pole position. Herta has never opened a season with consecutive finishes outside the top ten. He was 16th at St. Petersburg three weeks ago. Herta had top ten finishes in all six races held on natural-terrain road courses last season. He has finished in the top five in eight of his last 11 starts.
Marcus Ericsson makes it two Andretti Global cars starting inside the top five with Ericsson 0.7868 off O'Ward's top time. Ericsson was sixth in the season opener. Every time he has finished in the top ten in the first race of the season, Ericsson has finished in the top ten of the second race of the season as well. Last year, Ericsson started fifth in two races, and he finished fifth in both of those races as well.
Alexander Rossi takes sixth on the grid in what was Ed Carpenter Racing's first appearance in the final round of qualifying since the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Rossi had one appearance in the final round of qualifying last season. That was at Laguna Seca. Rossi was tenth at St. Petersburg. In his first nine seasons, Rossi has opened the season with consecutive top ten finishes only three times, including last year.
Marcus Armstrong missed out on the final round of qualifying by 0.0728 seconds. This is the fifth time Armstrong in starting in the top ten in his last seven starts. While Armstrong had two top five finishes and three top ten finishes on natural-terrain road courses last season, he finished 17th or worse in the other three natural-terrain road course events.
Kyle Kirkwood takes eighth on the grid after falling 0.121 seconds shy of advancing from the second round. Kirkwood has finished in the top five of his last two starts. The only time he has had three consecutive top five finishes was last season over the Detroit, Road America and Laguna Seca rounds. He won from eighth at Nashville in 2023, the only other time Kirkwood has started eighth in his career.
Meyer Shank Racing has its two cars starting nose-to-tail with Felix Rosenqvist in ninth. Entering this weekend Rosenqvist had started on pole position for the second race of the season for three consecutive years. His average finish in those three races was 18.667. This is the eighth time Rosenqvist has started ninth in his career. The last two times he has started ninth, he has finished 27th, and he has failed to finish four of the first seven races where he has started ninth.
In his second career start, Louis Foster has his first career top ten start in IndyCar. The Briton will take tenth on the grid. Foster was classified in last place at the season opener. The most recent driver to finish last in the first race of the season and then win a race later that year was Josef Newgarden in 2016. An IndyCar race has not been won from tenth starting position since the second Belle Isle race in 2018, 108 races ago, which Ryan Hunter-Reay won.
Scott Dixon starts 11th, the tenth time in the last 19 races Dixon has started outside the top ten. For five consecutive seasons, Dixon has finished in the top five of the second race of the season. In three of those races, he has finished fifth. In the other two he has won, including last year at Long Beach. However, Dixon started inside the top eight in all five of those races.
David Malukas was the slowest qualifier in the second round of qualifying, and Malukas slots into 12th on the grid. This is the fourth time in his last five road/street course races Malukas has made it to the second round of qualifying. In five starts in the state of California, Malukas' best finish is 13th and he has a career average finish of 18th.
Rinus VeeKay missed out of the second round of qualifying by 0.0838 seconds, and the Dutchman will start 13th. VeeKay ended an 18-race top ten drought for Dale Coyne Racing with his ninth-place finish in the St. Petersburg season opener. It was the fourth time in six seasons VeeKay has opened the season with a top ten finish.
Santino Ferrucci ended St. Petersburg in 14th and he will start 14th for the Thermal Grand Prix. Ferrucci was 0.0023 seconds off advancing to the second round. Last year at Laguna Seca, Ferrucci was ninth, his first top ten finish in the state of California in seven career starts. His average finish in the Golden State is 16.2857.
Conor Daly ended up 15th on the grid, 0.1304 seconds on the wrong side of the cutline for the first qualifying group. This will be only the 14th time in Daly's 41 road/street course races since the start of the 2020 season where he is starting in the top fifteen.
Nolan Siegel fell 0.0405 seconds off advancing from the second group, and Siegel will start 16th for the Thermal Grand Prix. Siegel has an average finish of 20.2857 over this first seven starts on road/street courses. His average starting spot in those races is 20th.
Josef Newgarden is the top Team Penske starter in 17th. This is the first time Team Penske did not make it out of the first round of qualifying since Portland 2021. Newgarden has finished third in the last two races and he has finished third in four of the last nine races. Prior to this nine-race stretch, he had finished third in only five of his first 207 starts.
Graham Rahal ended up 18th on the grid. This will be seventh consecutive Rahal has started outside the top ten. This is his longest stretch without a top ten start since a seven-race run over the final four races of 2022 and the first three events in 2023. Rahal will be making his 294th start this weekend, tying Ryan Hunter-Reay for 11th all-time.
Christian Rasmussen takes 19th on the grid. This is Rasmussen's first time starting in the top twenty after four consecutive starts of 23rd or worse. When starting inside the top twenty, Rasmussen has never finished better than his starting spot. Seven time, he has finished worse than his starting spot. Only once has Rasmussen matched his starting spot, and that was finishing 20th after starting 20th in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Kyffin Simpson rounds out the top twenty on the grid. This will be Simpson's third consecutive top twenty start. It is the first time he has started inside the top twenty in this many consecutive races. Simpson has finished outside the top fifteen in seven of his last eight races.
Will Power will start 21st, his worst starting position since he started 22nd for the second Iowa race last year. Power was 26th at St. Petersburg. It was his worst finish in a season opener. His previous worst was 25th at Homestead in 2008. Dating back to last season, Power has finished outside the top twenty in two consecutive races, a first for Power since Iowa and Toronto in 2011. Power followed those two races up with victory in Edmonton nearly 14 years ago. The law time Power started 22nd, he won the race.
Callum Ilott has his Prema Chevrolet starting 22nd. In seven trips to California with IndyCar, this is the fifth time Ilott has started 20th or worse. In the other two he has stared 18th (Long Beach 2021) and second (Laguna Seca 2022). This will be Ilott's 40th career start. No driver has ever had a first career victory come in a 40th career start.
Jacob Abel starts his second IndyCar race two spot better than in his first IndyCar race. Abel takes 23rd on the grid. Abel was off the lead lap in the first race of the season, finishing 23rd at St. Petersburg. Since the first race of the season, Abel had a birthday. He turned 24 years old on March 9.
Sting Ray Robb occupies 24th position on the grid. This is the 36th time in 37 races Robb is starting outside the top twenty. This will be the ninth time he has started 24th in his career. His average finish from 24th starting spot is 17.375, but his only top ten finish came from 24th starting position. Robb went from 24th to ninth at Gateway last year.
Scott McLaughlin was the slowest qualifier in the first qualifying group and he will start 25th, his worst starting position since starting 26th in the 2022 Indianapolis 500. Dating back to last season, McLaughlin has three consecutive top five finishes. The only time McLaughlin has had at least four consecutive top five finishes was in 2022, starting with the second Iowa race and running through the Portland race.
Devlin DeFrancesco matches his career-worst starting position of 26th. It will be DeFrancesco's third time starting 26th in a race. Despite not starting a race in 2024, DeFrancesco has finished 22nd in his last two starts. He has finished outside the top fifteen in his last nine starts. Six of those finishes have been outside the top twenty.
Robert Shwartzman rounds out the grid in 27th position. Shwartzman did not complete a lap on track until qualifying. His weekend opened with a mechanical issue that caused a fire in the car and forced him to stop his car on the circuit before he could complete a lap in practice on Friday. The fire damage forced the team to repair the car through all of Saturday morning practice.
Fox's coverage of the Thermal Grand Prix begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:17 p.m. The race is scheduled for 65 laps.
