Rossi takes second consecutive Long Beach pole position

Published on 13 Apr 2019 22:17

By: Fergal Walsh

Alexander Rossi has taken his second pole position at Long Beach, as he soared to the head of the Fast Six session on his final lap in qualifying.

The Andretti Autosport driver pipped reigning champion Scott Dixon, who abandoned his final fast lap, despite being up on his previous best time.

Rossi claimed pole at Long Beach in 2018, and went on to convert it into victory.

"That was way harder than last year," Rossi admitted after the session. "These NAPA, Andretti and Honda boys did such a good job. We had a tough Friday and the work we did overnight was awesome.

"To go and do this against the most competitive field we've ever had is a huge testament to the team. This one is big. I wasn't expecting it, to be honest."

After a disappointing round last weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, Team Penske responded strongly by getting all three of its cars into the Fast Six.

Will Power won the intra-team battle to claim third, with Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud following in fourth and fifth respectively.

After obtaining a front row start last time out, Graham Rahal once again advanced to the final stage and will start from the third row on Sunday.

After looking strong all weekend, Ryan Hunter-Reay failed to advance from the Fast 12 after getting caught out by a red flag.

The red was deployed after Felix Rosenqvist hit the barrier trying to improve his lap. The Swede held P2 at the time of the crash.

Hunter-Reay will start the race alongside Takuma Sato, who won last time out at Barber. The two rookies of Patricio O'Ward and Colton Herta will line up in ninth and tenth respectively.

Firestone Fast Six

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
undefined 1.	undefined Alexander Rossi	undefined Andretti Autosport	undefined 1:06.4811	undefined -
undefined 2.	undefined Scott Dixon	undefined Chip Ganassi Racing	undefined 1:06.7479	undefined +0.2668
undefined 3.	undefined Will Power	undefined Team Penske	undefined 1:06.8748	undefined +0.3937
undefined 4.	undefined Josef Newgarden	undefined Team Penske	undefined 1:06.9096	undefined +0.4285
undefined 5.	undefined Simon Pagenaud	undefined Team Penske	undefined 1:07.1877	undefined +0.7066
undefined 6.	undefined Graham Rahal	undefined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	undefined 1:07.3052	undefined +0.8241

Q2 Dropouts

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
Pos. 1.	Driver Scott Dixon	Team Chip Ganassi Racing	Time 1:06.6566	Gap -
Pos. 7.	Driver Ryan Hunter-Reay	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:07.1520	Gap +0.4954
Pos. 8.	Driver Takuma Sato	Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Time 1:07.2626	Gap +0.6060
Pos. 9.	Driver Patricio O'Ward	Team Carlin	Time 1:07.2764	Gap +0.6198
Pos. 10.	Driver Colton Herta	Team Harding Racing	Time 1:07.7721	Gap +1.1155
Pos. 11.	Driver Marco Andretti	Team Andretti Autosport	Time 1:08.3746	Gap +1.7180
Pos. 12.	Driver Felix Rosenqvist	Team Chip Ganassi Racing	Time 1:08.4410	Gap +1.7844