LEEDS, Ala. — After running fourth fastest in Saturday’s (March 28) NTT IndyCar Series morning practice at Barber Motorsports Park, Romain Grosjean qualified sixth for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix.
The Swiss-born Frenchman turned a fastest lap of 1:06.8363 to average 123.885 mph around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course just east of Birmingham, Alabama. Grosjean’s best lap was just over six tenths of a second slower than polesitter Alex Palou‘s fastest lap in the final round of qualifying despite a couple of mistakes in the final round of qualifying.
“I was upset against myself. The first lap should’ve been the best one. I got to turn 1 and I overdid it,” Grosjean said. “And then the second lap, I knew the delta time was not great, so I tried something in turn 9 and it didn’t work either. And then I just put the lap in the bank, but yeah, not proud of myself for that one.”
Grosjean was lucky to be in the final session in the first place. As the 2023 Barber polesitter was on a fast lap near the end of his group in the first round of qualifying, the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda approached a slow-moving Sting Ray Robb as the pair were heading down the back side of the course.
Robb received a qualifying interference penalty from race control while Grosjean went on to complete another lap that was third fastest in the group, good enough to advance to the second round of qualifying despite already having used up a good portion of tire life from a set of the red sidewall alternate compound tires.
“We had a bit of a messy first session, got blocked twice with traffic and still managed to go through,” Grosjean said. “And then I think the track kind of lost lap time and session two, we made it. The Fast Six should have been better. We should be top three, but I drove like my cousin.”
“I’m normally not necessarily good at [second laps], but I just took the next lap and thought that that was the only chance, so I put everything on the line,” Grosjean said. “I love that about IndyCar, I love that about the Firestone red tires. They normally give you a lap, maybe two if you’re lucky, and I love that you have to nail it over that amount of time.”
Scott McLaughlin OK After Car Pierces Fence at Barber
In the second round of qualifying, Grosjean turned the sixth-fastest lap to advance to the Firestone Fast Six for the second time this season after the season-opener on the streets of St. Petersburg.
IndyCar will be back on track at 10:05 a.m. ET Sunday (March 29) morning with a 30-minute warmup session that will be broadcast on FS2. The 90-lap race will air live on FOX with the broadcast starting at 1 p.m. ET.
