After a defect and a slip-up in practice, Mick Schumacher is also out of contention in qualifying: Q1 out and race start from row 11
The 51st edition of the Grand Prix of Long Beach will start on Sunday with Felix Rosenqvist (Shank Honda) on pole, while Mick Schumacher (Rahal Honda) will tackle the fifth IndyCar race of the 2026 season from 21st on the grid. In qualifying on Saturday, Schumacher finished directly in the Q1 segment. This added another chapter of frustration to a weekend that has been a complete mess so far.
On Friday, Schumacher was prevented from completing even a single flying lap due to a technical defect in the drive system. On Saturday morning, he slid into the tire pile.
This was the first ever crash for the IndyCar rookie from Germany on his fifth race weekend. But both incidents together made Schumacher’s preparation for qualifying on the street circuit, which was new to him, anything but easy.
Schumacher only drove the soft tires (“Reds”) for the first time in qualifying. So it was no great surprise that he did not make it past P11 in his group (Group 1) in the two-part Q1 segment and thus failed to make it into the twelve-strong Q2.
Schumacher will start Sunday’s race from the third-to-last row of the grid (row 11). His team-mates Graham Rahal and Louis Foster have qualified for the fifth and ninth rows of the grid respectively.
Felix Rosenqvist on pole in yet another new Q3 format
Felix Rosenqvist (Shank Honda) emerged from qualifying at Long Beach as pole-sitter. In the once again redesigned Q3 segment (individual time trials, whereby the time for the only Q3 lap is now chosen after the Q2 segment), Rosenqvist decided to start third. David Malukas (Penske-Chevrolet), who had been fastest in the Q2 segment, had the right of first refusal. He decided to drive first.
In the six-man Q3 (“Fast Six”), it was Rosenqvist who prevailed over Patricio “Pato” O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet) in the individual time trial with a lap time of 1:07.463 minutes. The Mexican was last in the Q3 segment according to his choice, but was not quite able to match Rosenqvist’s time. This is Rosenqvist’s first pole in exactly two years (Long Beach 2024).
Four-time and reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda) and current championship leader and last year’s Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Honda) will start from the second row on Sunday, followed by David Malukas and Scott Dixon (Ganassi-Honda) on the third row.
For Dixon, the six-time IndyCar champion, it was not only his first Q3 participation this season. He also made it into the Q2 segment for the first time this season. Will Power (Andretti Honda) and Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet) were the two drivers who missed out on Q3 this time. Power was edged out by Dixon in the final seconds of Q2.
The Q1 segment was the end of the line not only for Mick Schumacher, but surprisingly also for Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet) and Marcus Ericsson (Andretti Honda), among others.
The race distance in Long Beach is set at 90 laps. The race will start at 23:57 CEST on Sunday night, converted to Central European Time.
