THERMAL, Calif. – After a couple new wrinkles to IndyCar’s traditional road course qualifying formats – shrinking from 12 minutes to 8, using a single tire compound and giving drivers 40 seconds of push-to-pass boost – Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou finished on top of their respective groups and will lead Sunday morning’s heat race fields to green at The Thermal Club as the $1 Million Challenge begins.

Rosenqvist, just a few weeks into a debut at his new home at Meyer Shank Racing, again flashed top-level speed in his No. 60 Honda, following a front-row start two weeks ago in the 2024 season-opener at St. Pete. And unlike St. Pete, he finished on the right side of an uber-tight qualifying run – edging Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin for a pole in the first of two 10-lap heat races.

“It was a tricky day, man, but we kinda nailed it,” Rosenqvist said, after his lap of 1:38.5831 that left him less than two hundredths of a second ahead of the Penske driver for the heat race pole. “I did my lap at, like 99.5%. I didn’t over-push anywhere, and I think that was the right strategy. You see so many people making mistakes. And if you get the gust of wind in the wrong place, you can end up in the wall.

“If I would have had done one little mistake, I would have been like (6^th) in my group. It’s a very thin line from sitting here and scratching your head back in the truck.”

A juggernaut of a first group, where drivers had just eight minutes and one or two opportunities to lay down an optimal lap, finished with three drivers outside IndyCar’s presumed top-4 teams starting in the front two rows for Sunday’s first Group 1 heat. The somewhat surprising finishing order now sets the stage for what is expected to be a pair of energy-packed pair of 10-lap sprint races, without concern for fuel saving or much tire management.

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Trailing Rosenqvist and McLaughlin in the opening heat race Sunday will be Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), followed by the Penske pair of Josef Newgarden and Will Power. The Juncos Hollinger Racing tandem of Romain Grosjean and Agustin Canapino will start on the 4^th row for the Group 1 heat, with Scott Dixon, Santino Ferrucci, Colton Herta, Nolan Siegel, Kyle Kirkwood and Sting Ray Robb completing the lineup.

“The adrenaline is definitely higher when you’re starting that lap, like, ‘Okay, this is one-and-done’,” Rosenqvist said of the new-look qualifying format. “Going into this, in a way, we’re supposed to feel less pressure, being here because there’s no points or anything, but I was actually more nervous than ever, probably. It felt really good just getting the lap done with such a tight field.”

Group 2’s qualifying session brought the chaos a day early, as Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson lost his rear tires while on a flying lap in Turn 8 of the 17-turn, 3.067 course inside the uber-exclusive, private gated community in the middle of the Coachella Valley desert. Unable to save his slide, Ericsson backed his No. 28 Honda into the tire barrier with 1:19 left in the session with Arrow McLaren’s Callum Ilott and Pato O’Ward on top of the timing charts and an inexperienced trio of Pietro Fittipaldi, Colin Braun and Christian Rasmussen immediately trailing.

After Ericsson’s car was towed off the track, race control restarted the session, giving those who wished one more shot to roll out of the pits and take a stab at a final flying lap. Having burned their push-to-pass boost and turned their optimal lap early in the session, Arrow McLaren held Ilott and O’Ward in the pits while most of the rest of the group made a final run.

The teammates plummeted in consequence to the 8th and 9th starting spots in their group, respectively, just behind fellow Arrow McLaren teammate Alexander Rossi, whose final lap sent him from 11th to 7th for the Group 2 heat.

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Like he did most of the nine hours of testing, Palou rocketed to the top in the closing minutes, followed closely by his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates in 2nd (Marcus Armstrong) and 4th (Linus Lundqvist). Graham Rahal took advantage of his final post-red lap to leap from 13th to 3rd. Rosenqvist’s rookie MSR teammate Tom Blomqvist had a similarly-impressive day and will start 5th for his heat, with RLL’s Fittipaldi in 6th. Kyffin Simpson (10th), Rasmussen (11th), Braun (12th) and Ericsson (13th) will bring up the rear, needing to force the issue quickly if they hope to advance to Sunday’s finale.

“I’m going to put a bumper on the rear (of my car), because it’s going to be tight. With the push-to-pass enabled on the start, and the tow (of the trailing cars), it’s going to be tight,” Palou said of his ensuing heat race. “Nobody’s safe. It’s obviously the best spot – like, I wouldn’t change it at all. But it’s not guaranteed.

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“There’s other races where you say, ‘Okay, if you’re through Turn 1, it’s guaranteed you’re going to be pretty much in the top-3 or top-5.’ Here, I don’t think that’s the case. Hopefully we can get a good start and defend a little bit in Turn 1. I’ll see what Felix does (in the previous heat) and I’ll follow, or just do the complete opposite, depending on how he goes.”

The top-6 finishers in both heats will advance to a 20-lap main event, alternating starting spots between groups, with a $500,000 grand-prize, instead of points, on the line for Sunday’s overall victor. Sunday's heat races begin at 12:30 pm. ET (9:30 a.m. local), with the main event schedule to begin just before 2 p.m. All the coverage will air live on NBC.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Felix Rosenqvist, Alex Palou land IndyCar $1 Million Challenge heat poles