First Career Pole Position For Marcus Ericsson In Arlington

Marcus Ericsson during qualifying for the Arlington Grand Prix (Photo by: Kylar Boggs/RacingClipsAndPics)

Marcus Ericsson has qualified on pole position for the inaugural Arlington Grand Prix, and it is his first career NTT P1 Pole Position. It was a hectic qualifying session in Arlington with the first group in round 1 being a battle to the end to advance to the second round with Marcus Ericsson barely surviving to move on ahead of Louis Foster who was not able to set a faster lap time.

In round 1 group 2, a shocking moment occured as Scott McLaughlin who was one of the fastest drivers in both of the practice sessions, found the wall in turn 8. McLaughlin clipped the inside wall making contact with the right front and going straight into the wall, bringing an end to his session. McLaughlin will start last after crashing out in round 1.

Towards the end in the second round of qualifying, Kyle Kirkwood had put down a lap good enough to move on to the fast six for a very brief moment, until Andretti teammate Marcus Ericsson knocked out Kirkwood at the last second, and moved on to the Firestone Fast Six.

Heading into the final round of qualifying, Indycar brought a new qualifying format for the Firestone Fast Six qualifications to Arlington, as it was announced it would be a single car qualifying format instead of group qualifying. This meant each driver would have to wait for each other to finish their lap before they could go out on track.

Marcus Ericsson was the first of the six drivers to go out on track and set down a lap good enough for his first career NTT P1 Pole Position Award. Everyone else who went after Ericsson did not set a lap time quick enough to beat the Andretti driver. Alex Palou lines up second followed by Pato O' Ward, Will Power, Felix Rosenqvist, and Marcus Armstrong as the top 6 drivers.

When asked about qualifying Ericsson said "In Q1, the car was too loose and we barely made it to the next round, but in Q2 we made some changes and the balance was a lot better overall." Alex Palou, who starts next to Ericsson on the front row was asked about the overall tire degradation and Palou stated "Yeah the alternate tires may be faster at the start, maybe five, six, or even 10 laps but the primary tires certainly feel better for sure."

Sundays Java House Grand Prix of Arlington will start at 12 P.M ET as there is a high wind advisory for tomorrow, and the green flag is scheduled for 11:17 AM local time, here in Arlington, TX.