Photo: Karl Zemlin
Alessandro de Tullio and Max Taylor share the pole positions for the Indy Nxt races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
De Tullio was fastest overall in qualifying, taking his fourth straight pole position, but Taylor’s second fastest lap time was enough to end the AJ Foyt Racing driver’s streak.
It was Taylor who set the pace in practice, jumping to the top of the order late on with a time of 1m15.2096s. However, it didn’t take de Tullio long to better that benchmark around the Indianapolis road course. The Barber race winner went top of the order with a time of 1m15.0848s, a time which wouldn’t be beaten in either of the two qualifying groups.
Championship leader Nikita Johnson was briefly fastest on second-fastest lap times, but de Tullio improved his second-best time to knock the Cape Motorsports driver down to down.
Taylor set the pace early in the second qualifying group with a time of 1m15.09s. It was a time he was unable to improve on, but nobody else in the group could go faster either. It put him second on the grid for the first race of the weekend.
However, his time of 1m15.2443s was 0.0747s quicker than de Tullio’s second quickest lap, putting him on pole for race two.
Lochie Hughes was second fastest in the first group, 0.1367s slower than de Tullio. He starts third for race one, alongside Josh Pierson.
Johnson starts sixth ahead of Matteo Nannini, Sebastian Murray and Tymek Kucharczyk. Ricardo Escotto and Enzo Fittipaldi complete the top 10.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Alessandro de Tullio AJ Foyt Racing 1m15.0846s
2 Max Taylor Andretti Global +0.0663s
3 Lochie Hughes Andretti Global +0.1357s
4 Josh Pierson Andretti Global +0.2921s
5 Nikita Johnson Cape Motorsports +0.2319s
6 Matteo Nannini Cape Motorsports +0.3870s
7 Seb Murray Andretti Global +0.4114s
8 Tymek Kucharczyk HMD Motorsports +0.3878s
9 Ricardo Escotto Juncos Hollinger Racing +0.5676s
10 Enzo Fittipaldi HMD Motorsports +0.4921s
Race 2 grid
1 Taylor 1m15.2443s
2 de Tullio +0.0747s
3 Pierson +0.1430s
4 Johnson +0.0819s
5 Kucharczyk +0.2962s
6 Hughes +0.1084s
7 Fittipaldi +0.3976s
8 Murray +0.4407s
9 Nannini +0.4147s
10 Escotto +0.5802s