Milwaukee – McLaughlin and Newgarden take pole positions, Palou in mid-pack

As is often the case, the team of "Captain" Roger Penske showed its teeth on an oval circuit, although theIndyCar hasn't been to the world's oldest active oval (opened in 1903) since 2015. Scott McLaughlin took pole position for tonight's race (midnight French time), and Josef Newgarden took pole position for Sunday's race. The two men actually swapped positions between the two qualifying rounds, but Newgarden won't start second tonight, as he was penalized six grid positions for an engine change. This has the effect of promoting David Malukas (Meyer Shank Racing) to the front row for Race 1, as was the case at Gateway.

Sixth and fourth, Will Power (Team Penske) did what was necessary to continue to put pressure on championship leader Álex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing). The Spaniard qualified 13th and tenth, so he will start in the middle of the pack on a very flat oval, where the first laps can sometimes be quite rough. Palou will have in front of him Romain Grosjean (Juncos Hollinger Racing) this evening, with the Frenchman qualifying eleventh, while he set the 14th fastest time in qualifying for the second race of the weekend.

Colton Herta (Andretti), one of the other strong men in the championship, finds himself sandwiched between Grosjean and Palou for the first race, while he only qualified in 18th position for Race 2, behind a struggling Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing), a week after his retirement on the first lap of the Portland event. The New Zealander will therefore probably not go for a seventh championship title, which would have allowed him to equal the legend AJ Foyt.

With gaps of 1″6 (Race 1) and 2″0 (Race 2) between the first and the last, the two rounds are likely to give pride of place to traffic management, which has always been an important point in Milwaukee, and will perhaps be even more so with the aerodynamic kits introduced in 2018, which produce less downforce than their predecessors, with which Sébastien Bourdais had imposed itself nine years ago.

Milwaukee – Qualifiers

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