Kyle Kirkwood leads an Andretti 1-2 in Detroit pre-qualifying
It is absolutely wild to watch Andretti Global command a street circuit like this. Kyle Kirkwood secured the top spot during the pre-qualifying practice for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with a lap of 1 minute, 1.8145 seconds, leading a clean 1-2 finish for the team. His teammate, Will Power, followed right behind him with a 1:01.9453, both men mastering the tricky, cold conditions that left the rest of the field struggling to get heat into their tires.
It was not a perfect session, however. Kirkwood flirted with disaster about 26 minutes in, brushing the concrete barrier and forcing a red flag with a bent toe link on his machine. Despite the snap, he managed to find his best time on his 11th lap, proving just how much pace that No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda really has.
Behind the Andretti pair, Pato O’Ward climbed to third in his No. 5 Arrow McLaren, while Alex Palou found a 1:02.2573 to take fourth. Meanwhile, the session saw some mechanical drama with both Rinus VeeKay and Christian Lundgaard forced back to the pits trailing heavy smoke. With qualifying ahead, the pressure is on to see if anyone can disrupt this Andretti dominance.
