2025 IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland qualifying results

Christian Lundgaard takes pole position with Arrow McLaren in the 2025 IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland qualifying but due to a six place grid penalty will hand his teammate, Pato O’Ward, the top spot in tomorrow’s race.

Making a decision to do an unapproved engine change earlier on Saturday, Lundgaard will not start seventh promoting everyone in the Fast Six up a spot.

The pole seemed to be bitter sweet for Lundgaard who most likely wished he could start from the well-deserved position tomorrow but he labelled it a “best case scenario” for himself.

He said: “Honestly, as I crossed the line, I still didn't really expect it. I just felt like I had a big push in turn five, a big push in turn six and I knew I was slower than [in the] Fast Twelve so I didn't really think that was it.

“But we were discussing this and this and it was best case scenario for us obviously with the six place grid penalty.

“I’m just proud of the team. I mentioned this to you yesterday, we’ve had a week off, everybody is kind of recharged and obviously another front row lockout for the team except only one of them will start here. I’m happy that we at least could help Pato on that side.”

O’Ward, who is currently fighting to stop Alex Palou from taking his fourth championship this weekend, will start four places ahead of the champion-elect after a rare mistake from the Chip Ganassi driver saw him hit the wall at the final corner at speed.

Locking up his front right tyre, Palou made the exact same fault as Robert Shwartzman in Group One who brought out a red flag due to being stuck in the wall.

Despite hitting the wall at a greater speed, Palou bounced off it and suffered no damage but couldn’t set a more competitive lap time. 

Originally fourth, the incident meant his fastest lap time was deleted for causing a yellow on track which dropped him to the bottom of the session.

“I just tried a bit hard”, Palou reflected, “We wanted that pole, we knew that it was going to be tight.

“I think I started locking quite early on and then I couldn't really get the car stopped. [I’m] glad that I didn't break anything on the car that I could continue. It's frustrating, but I was trying my best, I was trying to go as fast as possible and went a little bit too hard.

“I'm happy that we're in the Fast Six, happy that we're starting top six tomorrow and ready to go for it.”

Rosenqvist will start second for tomorrow's race followed by Will Power in third who once again was the only Penske car in the Fast Six.

The man rumoured to be taking his seat at Penske, David Malukas, will line up behind him in fourth.

Group One saw a tense end to the session after a red flag was brought out with only a minute left on the clock after Robert Shwartzman locked up his Prema car and dove into the wall at the final corner.

Although he was able to reverse it out of the gravel, Shwartzman failed to make it through and will start 25th tomorrow.

The red flag put several notable drivers at risk including David Malukas, Nolan Siegel and Louis Foster.

With only one push lap available once track went green, Malukas was able to survive by the skin of his teeth finishing Group One in sixth after his lap time put him fourth. 

He was pushed down however by faster times by Marcus Armstrong and Alexander Rossi.

Armstrong was later eliminated in the Fast Twelve and qualified eighth.

Malukas’ lap time meant that Scott McLaughlin was eliminated in Group One after he finished seventh and just outside the top six.

“I didn't quite get that last lap, that one lap together”, McLaughlin explained.

“I was really frustrated with myself. We didn't roll out great but we've made it better which I'm really proud of the guys and I think the because consistently working so it's just I want to deliver for the guys.

McLaughlin was joined by Rinus VeeKay in the elimination zone who had a moment on his final lap and found himself on the grass on his final lap.

McLaughlin qualified 13th while VeeKay finished the session in 23rd.

Santino Ferrucci also failed to make it through and blamed Veekay moment for his own elimination suggesting that the Dutch driver for coming back on to track in front of him.

He said: “To be honest with you the lap was good, I saw VeeKay off, I wasn't sure if he's got back in front of me.

“This is why we didn't advance. I mean we just kind of missed it by two tenths and it's a bit of a shame. So we really needed to complete our first run and I think that would have got us in.”

Ferrucci qualified 15th but faces a six place grid penalty due to an unapproved engine change which will demote him to 21st.

Group Two was topped by Pato O’Ward who began to show for the first time this weekend his pace after looking to be lacking pace in both practice sessions.

A highly competitive group, drivers chopped and changed positions throughout the session with no one safe from the elimination zone.

Despite showing good pace in practice, Colton Herta failed to make it through and was joined by his Andretti teammate, Kyle Kirkwood in the elimination zone.

“That's unfortunate”, Herta began, “The balance felt okay just [the] lap time just wasn't coming through.

“I think we're just missing a bit of overall grip because it seemed a lot happier on the blacks this morning  and the time was coming a lot easier.

“It's really upsetting especially from the pace that we have this morning. 

"It's kind of difficult to pass here so it sucks when you start that far back. But plenty of opportunities in this race as huge windows for strategists to do their thing and try to get us in a good spot.”

Herta qualified 16th while Kirkwood put himself in 20th.

Marcus Ericsson finished second in Group Two to make himself the only Andretti driver to do so.

Despite the slight hope he might make it into the Fast Six, Ericsson was unable to deliver and qualified 11th.

After taking a new engine following Practice Two, Josef Newgarden survived Group Two and finished third overall.

The sacrifice for his position in the Fast Twelve is a six place grid drop in tomorrow's race as the engine change was not approved.

The new engine could only do so much to help however and he failed to make it into the Fast Six later on. He qualified ninth but will start 15th.

Felix Rosenqvist set the fastest time in an incredibly tight Fast Twelve followed by Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward.

Alex Palou finished fourth overall behind O’Ward while Will Power and David Malukas rounded out the Fast Six.

Alexander Rossi painfully missed out by the narrowest of margins and finished seventh in the Fast Twelve but he can take solace in big hitters such as Scott Dixon also failed to make it through.

A mistake on his final lap saw the Ed Carpenter driver lose a lot of time.

Rossi said: “There's a lot of things,  I think ultimately it's a really good day for us. it was a very trying month of July for a lot of different reasons that we don't need to get into so it was good to come out of that kind of week off and reset.

“Huge thank you to the ECR organization for that and the Java House guys. They're just committed to what we're doing. To miss the fast six by that amount, it wasn't a very good lap on my side so that is what it is.”

Dixon qualified 10th overall and said a regeneration problem stopped him from making it to the Fast Six.

He will start ninth thanks to Newgarden's penalty.

“It was a bit messy,” Dixon huffed, “It seemed like. I don't know, I could only see the 66 [and the 8 and they were backing everybody up.

“We started to push and then had to abort the first two and then by then my rear tyres were kind of gone.

“Unfortunately on the last two laps, whatever I was doing, I was still selecting regens, so every time I came out first and second, we were stuck in regen so we need to look at that and see what that is, but you just lose a ton of power there.

“The car's definitely pretty good…it's just It didn't go quite as well as Friday.”