Photo: Travis Hinkle
Caio Collet edged Dennis Hauger to pole position for both of Indy Nxt’s races at Laguna Seca in qualifying on Saturday.
Track action was delayed as low cloud cover prevented the medical helicopter from taking off. An IndyCar practice session was cancelled, meaning Indy Nxt’s qualifying session — which was split into two groups — opened the day’s schedule.
Laptimes improved dramatically through the first group. With his car repaired overnight following his crash in free practice, Hauger set the pace early on with a 1m14.7s lap. He had improved to 1m13.3275s by the time the chequered flag waved, and that put him back on top.
Andretti Global team-mate Lochie Hughes and Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe had both spent time in first place, but neither could match the later improvements that Hauger found. Rowe ended up 0.3148s behind him, and Hughes was a further 0.113s slower.
The second qualifying group was on the pace much quicker. Collet immediately lapped in the 1m13.3s, a few hundredths of a second off Hauger’s benchmark. The HMD Motorsports driver improved incrementally thereon, retaining top spot in his group throughout and outpacing Hauger by 0.0709 seconds after setting a 1m13.2566s.
His rival for pole was then team-mate Josh Pierson, but he lapped 0.1797s slower than Collet to claim third on the grid for race one. Abel’s Callum Hedge was third fastest, 0.2644s off pole, so will share row three with Hughes.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set the race two grid, and the rows of the grid were therefore also split into the two groups. Collet’s 1m13.3283s effort earned him pole by a tiny 0.0302s over Hauger and 0.1216s over Pierson.
Hughes was second to Hauger in their group on second-best laptimes, so will line up fourth, with Hedge and Rowe on row three.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen and Andretti Cape’s Seb Murray made it onto row four for race one, and HMD’s Max Taylor will start seventh ahead of Murray in race two.
Less than a second split the top 15 drivers on outright pace, although HMD’s Hailie Deegan was then a second slower than everyone else in 19th place.
Additional reporting by Ida Wood
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Caio Collet HMD Motorsports 1m13.2566s
2 Dennis Hauger Andretti Global +0.0709s
3 Josh Pierson HMD Motorsports +0.1797s
4 Myles Rowe Abel w/ Force Indy +0.3857s
5 Callum Hedge Abel Motorsports +0.2644s
6 Lochie Hughes Andretti Global +0.4987s
7 Niels Koolen Chip Ganassi Racing +0.6445s
8 Seb Murray Andretti Cape +0.7183s
9 Max Taylor HMD Motorsports +0.7368s
10 Jordan Missig Abel Motorsports +0.7970s
Race 2 grid
1 Collet 1m13.3283s
2 Hauger +0.0302s
3 Pierson +0.1216s
4 Hughes +0.4286s
5 Hedge +0.4376s
6 Rowe +0.4435s
7 Taylor +0.6861s
8 Murray +0.6909s
9 Koolen +0.7709s
10 Missig +0.8175s