Photo: Chris Owens

IndyCar rookie Sting Ray Robb says Linus Lundqvist, who beat him to last year’s Indy Nxt title, ‘deserves a seat’ in the series.

Lundqvist looks set to become the first Indy Nxt champion since Jean-Karl Vernay 2010 to not graduate into professional single-seater racing the following year, despite winning the title with HMD Motorsports that co-runs an IndyCar operation.

Robb, who raced for Andretti Autosport in Indy Nxt and steps up to IndyCar in the Dale Coyne Racing car co-run by HMD, explained on IndyCar’s pre-season ‘Content Day’ how becoming aware of Lundqvist’s difficulties in stepping up led him to his seat after “lots of talks between different teams”.

“There was a few teams that we were talking to, and Dale’s team was not the one that was at the top of the list because we thought they already had a driver,” Robb revealed.

“With Linus winning the Indy Nxt championship, we assumed with the HMD association there that there would be a straight shoe-in for him. But I actually was at PitFit Training one day with Linus and discovered that was not the case. That created an opportunity for us that allowed me to call up my manager, Peter Rossi [McLaren IndyCar driver Alexander’s father], and get him on the phone, and he immediately called Dale and said ‘hey, we’re available’.

“I think there was a mutual understanding of what availability was for either one of us. That’s when conversations began with testing options, because at that point he had already committed to testing Marcus [Armstrong] in the car and Danial [Frost] in the car at the Sebring test in the late off-season last year.

“Then we had a really good test in 2023 right at the beginning of January, and I think that was kind of the one that set the tone that allowed me to get in the seat.”

Robb had “assumed Linus was locked into the seat” and even when he started talking with DCR he was “also still talking to another team”.

A call with a journalist led to Robb learning that there was also a team with Argentinian connections (assumed to be Juncos Hollinger Racing) interested in starting talks, and with that as a negotiating tool he “had a conversation with Dale after that, and it expedited the process, and here we are now”.

He commented further on Lundqvist’s IndyCar ambitions, saying: “Well, I believe that I deserve a seat and he beat me, so there’s your answer.”

“Linus does deserve a seat. His on-track performance was incredible. But it takes more than just a driver to get into IndyCar. You’ve got to have a village around you that supports you, and so I think that that is where my group made a difference.

“It wasn’t just in my performance, but it was the people around me. I feel bad for Linus because as a driver I can feel that way towards him because I could be in that seat if I didn’t have those same people around me.”

The post Robb says Lundqvist deserves IndyCar seat and thought he was “shoe-in” for DCR drive appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: James Black

Last year’s Indy Lights runner-up Sting Ray Robb has secured a seat on the 2023 IndyCar grid, replacing two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato at Dale Coyne Racing.

Sato announced earlier this week he is moving to Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the oval races in the car that Formula 2 graduate Marcus Armstrong will race on the road and street courses.

Robb will take over the Dale Coyne entry previously driven by Sato that is co-run by Rick Ware Racing. He will be one of three full-time IndyCar rookies, along with two-time Super TC2000 champion Agustin Canapino – whose single-seater experience comes to a single Formula 3 Sudamericana appearance in 2011 – and fellow Indy Lights graduate Benjamin Pedersen.

“This is an opportunity – a dream – that has been long in the making,” said Robb, “I’m honored to join forces with Dale Coyne, Rick Ware and the whole organization. I am excited and grateful to be on the IndyCar grid for 2023.

“We had a great first test together in early January [at Sebring] and I was very impressed with the efficiency of the DCR with RWR team and how well we worked together on our first day.

“DCR has a historically distinguished program that has seen success with many drivers and most recently, with young, talented drivers. I’m looking forward to continuing in that trend and expecting some strong results as we enter my rookie season.”

The 21-year-old spoke openly through 2022 about his intention to be on the next year’s IndyCar grid, and in his sophomore Indy Lights campaign he claimed one win, seven other podiums and two pole positions to be championship runner-up.

The previous year he had been eighth in the standings with just a single top-five finish, and before that had spent four years in what is now known as USF Pro 2000.

He came sixth in his rookie campaign in 2017, was seventh in his sophomore season and earned his first podium, then a move to Juncos Hollinger Racing resulted in six podiums, two poles and fourth in the standings in 2019.

Robb utilised his experience well when he stayed on for a fourth season, and a second with Juncos. During 2020 he won seven races, earned five pole positions and won the title by a huge margin ahead of future IndyCar rival Devlin DeFrancesco.

It looks highly unlikely that reigning Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist will race in top-tier single-seaters this year. Pedersen, who finished fifth in the standings, and Robb are set to be the only series graduates headed to IndyCar.

Robb’s move is in no doubt thanks to his manager Pieter Rossi, father of former Formula 1 and current IndyCar driver Alexander.

“Dale and I have spent a lot of the off-season testing and discussing driver options,” said Rick Ware.

“Getting Sting Ray on board to compete for the IndyCar Rookie of the Year championship, as well as the Indy 500 rookie of the race honors, is pretty incredible.

“I’m really looking forward to another fresh driver and personality to the No. 51 team and partnership platforms.”

The post Indy Lights runner-up Sting Ray Robb lands IndyCar seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

40. Joel Granfors

New entry • Swede fought hard for GB3 title in debut season

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

For his second year racing in Britain, Joel Granfors stepped up from British Formula 4 to GB3 and made a clear step forward in confidence and performance too to run the older and more experienced Luke Browning close for the championship.

In F4, Granfors had struggled to stand out from a competitive and closely-matched field, winning one of 30 races on his way to a solid fourth overall. Staying with Fortec Motorsports for the move up to GB3 though, the faster and more powerful car seemed to suit him and bring out his best. He looked particularly at home on the ultra-fast Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, where he scored both his race wins across two visits to the track.

Aside from those victories, consistency was key to his title bid. Making the podium in all three races at the second Silverstone meeting allowed him to take the championship advantage into the final two rounds, but he didn’t quite have enough to keep Hitech’s determined Browning at bay. There was great racecraft too, rewarded with plenty of bonus points from GB3’s fully reversed-grid race threes. But Granfors was quick as well, with the best qualifying average even though his tally of three poles was bettered by the five of both Browning and impressive single-seater newcomer Callum Voisin.

39. Alexander Smolyar

Down 12 • F3 veteran a winner again in disrupted season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

After two seasons with ART Grand Prix, Alexander Smolyar moved to MP Motorsport, effectively swapping places with champion-to-be Victor Martins, for what turned out to be a mixed third season in FIA Formula 3. As a Russian driver, he had to face significant travel complications in the aftermath of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, culminating in him missing Silverstone after being unable to get a British entry visa.

He was on the pace from the start of the season taking a podium in the Bahrain sprint race, but his season came together in the second half. He took the first of two pole positions, the only driver apart from Zane Maloney to achieve the feat, in Hungary and simply drove away from the field in tricky wet-to-dry conditions, immediately extending a comfortable lead over Maloney and Ollie Bearman in the early stages and never coming under threat thereafter. With Smolyar racing as a neutral competitor his victory provided the rare sight of a white flag flying above the top step of the podium.

His second pole came at Monza in the finale but he dropped back before retiring with damage from contact. Ignoring Silverstone, Smolyar matched the points haul of his team-mate Caio Collet, to help MP to fourth again in the team’s standings.

38. Jamie Chadwick

Up 12 • Third W Series championship was her most dominant

Photo: W Series

Photo: W Series

Jamie Chadwick acheived a highly unusual feat in 2022 by winning the same junior championship for a third time, and this one was by far and away the most commanding of the lot. While her third W Series crown was confirmed in unusual circumstances after the championship cancelled the final three races due to budget issues, the retaining of her crown seemed in little doubt when the racing got underway at Miami.

It was a season where younger drivers were expected to make the step up and challenge Chadwick’s authority, but it was she who looked to have made further strides from her 2019 and 2021 successes, even if there is a smaller sample size to go off than last year. She was undoubtedly the complete package this year – certainly expected by somebody in their fourth year in FRegional machinery – but the sheer quality she had over the rest of the opposition was on full display. Five wins on the bounce is crushing form, whichever way you look at it.

Be it in qualifying, tyre management or race pace, Chadwick appeared to have it all in abundance over her rivals. Damp conditions were the exception – although at the points where rain came into play she was merely needing to play the points game.

The Williams junior is one of the most recognisable junior drivers on the planet right now, and she will be taking that following over to the United States in 2023 – where next up is Indy Nxt.

37. Rafael Camara

New entry • Ferrari’s F4 rookie was quick to win in UAE, Italy and Germany

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Three wins across a double European F4 campaign do not do justice to Rafael Camara’s performances with top team, Prema in Italy and Germany. More indicative of his season are the Ferrari junior’s 13 second places, all but one behind team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Though Camara did not lack pace, he was seldom able to match his rival in race conditions. He did, however, manage to mug Antonelli after a safety car restart to take victory at Misano in early June, remarkably his last win of the year. He put in some tremendous charges through the field at Imola, after an engine problem in qualifying, and twice at Spa, once when a first lap incident dropped him down the field and again when the Italian series visited the circuit later in the year and he recovered to third after stalling on pole.

Ultimately, he failed to live up to the elevated expectations forged with six victories in the UAE series at the start of the year, having been forced to postpone his single-seater debut after illness caused him to miss the opening round. He lacked Antonelli’s knack of consistently pulling out a super-quick lap in qualifying, and when he did start from pole was unable to convert to a win. With a year’s racing experience, and all eyes on Antonelli, he will benefit from the move to FREC, where the ultra-competitive field should help develop his wheel-to-wheel racing skills.

36. Hugh Barter

New entry • Scored 16 wins in unique dual French and Spanish F4 challenge

Photo: FFSA

Photo: Spanish F4

Hugh Barter undertook an ambitious dual F4 programme in France, where he had finished runner-up in his rookie season in 2021, and Spain, involving two completely different chassis, engines and tyres, ultimately falling short of either title. Yet, he did more than enough to justify the gamble. Sixteen victories, including 10 from 14 non-reversed grid races in France, amply demonstrated his talent.

Ironically, the one area where the two series overlapped was in their venues and his four French wins at Spa-Francorchamps and Valencia Ricardo Tormo earned him no championship points. Alessandro Giusti, though crowned champion, won just twice.

In Spain he had to contend with a much tougher rival, Campos team-mate, Nikola Tsolov. The pair took all but two race wins but split 13 to six in the Bulgarian rookie’s favour. As Barter explained mid-season, the need to adjust between two different Gen-2 concepts, as well as the differences of either compared to the Gen-1 car, undoubtedly complicated his season.

Maybe Tsolov is simply a generational talent – time will tell. In any case, if, as expected, both find themselves in FIA F3 in 2023, then the continuation of their rivalry will be a fascinating sub-plot. Barter shows a maturity beyond his 17 years and few work harder to build a profile and provide a return for sponsors and partners.

35. Caio Collet

Down 14 • Claimed first F3 wins and pole in sophomore season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

In 2022 Collet had to watch his Alpine Academy colleague and long-time rival Victor Martins land a well-deserved move to ART Grand Prix and claim the championship title while he stayed with MP Motorsport for a second year and struggled to make any great strides forward.

The first half of the season was particularly difficult, with only a couple of podiums from reversed-grid sprint races and a lack of many points from feature races. The second half brought more highlights: A maiden win in the Hungaroring sprint race was the first seven consecutive points finishes, although only three of those were in the top five and they were all in sprints, including another win at Zandvoort.

Neither of his victories were complete gifts from the reversed grids, both coming from fourth place on circuits not known for their overtaking. His speed in those races was considerable, both in the wet in Hungary and on the dry Dutch track, and his average race pace over the year was bettered only by Prema’s Bearman and Arthur Leclerc. But in feature races his fourth place at Silverstone was never matched.

With MP’s fine progress in F2 not yet having filtered down to its F3 squad in the same way, Collet had a general lack of qualifying speed in the dry. He did take pole from a mixed-up session on a drying track at Spa, but a penalty for an unsafe opening-lap rejoin cost him third in the race. Where the Nicolas Todt protege lands in 2023 remains to be seen, after he was absent from both Formula 2 and F3 post-season testing.

34. Jak Crawford

Down 9 • Red Bull junior’s F3 title bid showed early promise

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Crawford joined Prema for his second season in FIA F3 and, in line with expectations of just about any driver who’s part of that squad, he was in the championship fight all the way to the final round. By that point though he was a remote outsider, starting and finishing that last weekend seventh in the standings. That after a season which, after some strong early promise, never quite ignited.

When he was still a week away from his 17th birthday, Crawford had a very strong second round at Imola, finishing third in the sprint race and second in the feature. He followed that at Barcelona with a third consecutive podium, a second place in the sprint. More sprint race success came at the Red Bull Ring with a Helmut Marko-pleasing win, and at that point he was still within 10 points of the championship lead.

It would be followed however by just one points finish in the next five races, and spinning out of the wet qualifying session at Spa effectively did for his title chances. He did end the year back on the podium in the Monza feature race with coming men Zane Maloney and Bearman, but it was too little, too late to alter his final position.

This was a perfectly solid season for a driver who doesn’t turn 18 until next May, but can be considered a disappointment against the expectations set by his backers and his thorough preparations. Surely another year in F3 would not have hurt for 2023, rather than the very on-brand jump up to F2 that is anticipated.

33. Sting Ray Robb

Re-entry • Grabbed second place in Indy Lights to build IndyCar hopes

Photo: James Black

Photo: James Black

A switch to Andretti Autosport seemed like an ideal fit for Sting Ray Robb and his sophomore Indy Lights campaign resulted in a strong, consistent season that has put him firmly onto the IndyCar radar for 2023.

While Andretti is not the Lights force it once was, it is still an outstanding organisation and an ideal place for a young driver to learn at, and as the year progressed Robb began to look more and more like a frontrunner.

His season started off decently enough – a few podium finishes here and there – but rookie team-mates Christian Rasmussen and Hunter McElrea were also impressing while returnee Matthew Brabham took the team’s first win of the year. At Road America, Robb took his first pole on a weekend where Andretti were the team to beat. He eventually lost out to Rasmussen in the race, but it proved to be a statement of intent from him.

Robb didn’t quite get the results that his team-mates could manage on the ovals, nor did he have an answer for Linus Lundqvist and HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing, but he showed that it was all coming together at Laguna Seca.

A commanding victory from pole there, followed with a second place behind Rasmussen, vaulted the Idahoan to a slightly surprising second in the championship standings, and he remains an outside shot of being on IndyCar’s grid next year ahead of this year’s champion.

32. Jonny Edgar

Re-entry • Fought back after illness to score consistently well in F3

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

A move to Trident promised a lot for Edgar’s second season in FIA F3, but he was forced to put it on hold soon after it begun due to Crohn’s disease striking him down pre-season. Once he returned to the grid he was one of the most consistent drivers and one of very few to score in six consecutive races.

His comeback at Silverstone, after missing only two rounds, came earlier than he had expected yet he managed to finish the feature race eighth after starting in 14th. More impressive results would come in the three rounds after the summer break, when he was never outside the points and delivered solid drives in every qualifying session, sprint race and feature race.

His lack of a podium finish does stand against him, but he was still able to rack up a good haul of points and also got himself up to pace well once he was able to come back to racing. It’s unclear whether he will continue to be a Red Bull junior in 2023, but he has already secured a third season in the championship with MP Motorsport.

31. Arthur Leclerc

Up 12 • Was strong F3 title contender until fading late on 

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Leclerc began the year by taking his first single-seater title in the Formula Regional Asian Championship: a campaign that was focused on refining some of his weaknesses ahead of a second season with Prema in FIA F3.

There, he would be expected to make a step up and and challenge for the championship, and in the first half of the year he was doing a very good job of that, as part of what looked like a close three-way francophone fight with Martins and Isack Hadjar.

As it had been in 2021, qualifying remained a real issue for Leclerc at the beginning, although the same seemed true for the whole Prema team at that point. Leclerc made most devastating use of the team’s unmatched race pace, going from 13th to second behind Martins in the Bahrain feature race, and from 21st to fourth next time out at Imola. When he qualified on the front row at Silverstone, he turned that into a win.

But surprisingly, his Silverstone success turned out to be a one-off, and further qualifying woes would ultimately prove terminal for his title bid. He wasn’t the only contender to be caught out at Spa or at Zandvoort, but he was the only one to end up so far down the grid on both occasions, and he couldn’t repeat his early-season salvage jobs. By the final round at Monza he appeared resigned, in the shadow of team-mate Bearman’s rising star.

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2022: 40-31 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Travis Hinkle

IndyCar’s increased influence led to a signifcantly shortened calendar, less prize money but two more full-time entries on a small Indy Lights grid. There was a headline-grabbing start, but the season then stuttered

On September 24, 2021 it was announced that Indy Lights would move under the control of Penske Entertainment, owner of the IndyCar series it supports, for 2022. Promotion of the series would be by Penske, with Andersen Promotions continuing to work on the series below after eight years with Indy Lights under its direction.

IndyCar became more involved on Indy Lights sporting matters during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Cooper Tires’ deal as the spec tyre supplier was renewed for 2022. That turned out to be its last deal, with the the series switching to Firestone tyres next year to match IndyCar.

The second races at the Barber Motorsports Park, St. Petersburg, Road America, Mid-Ohio, the Gateway oval and Portland rounds were dropped for the 2022 season, as well as the second Mid-Ohio round that appeared in 2021, but the series returned to Iowa Speedway and went to the streets of Nashville for the first time.

These changes increased interest in seats, although as always it proved difficult to signifcantly grow the series’ size.

In 2021 there was 13 cars for 60% of the season, then the grid dropped to 11 cars for two rounds, and there were only nine full-time drivers. This year the first four rounds had 14 cars, with the grid dipping to 12 at three rounds and there being 13 cars for the other four events. For the first time since 2017, the number of full-time drivers was in double figures too at 11.

Less races meant each had more importance in the title race, and this was a far closer field than in previous years across the top half of the order. Had there been one more race, five drivers would have been in contention to be series runner-up.

But ultimately there was never truly a point in the season where it looked like anyone bar Linus Lundqvist would win the title except for the St. Petersburg season opener.

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Chris Owens

Debutant Hunter McElrea convicingly led the first quarter of the race from pole before crashing out from a mistake while he was approaching a backmarker to lap, then his Andretti Autosport team-mate Christian Rasmussen took over at the front until he ran out of fuel with two laps to go. That handed victory to series returnee Matthew Brabham, who was aiming to reignite hopes of an IndyCar career after a brief stint in Formula E and then becoming a star of Stadium Super Trucks.

Following that race, HMD Motorsports’ Lundqvist claimed five pole positions on the trot and converted four of those into victories, putting him 84 points clear of closest rival Benjamin Pedersen after four rounds. Global Racing Group with HMD’s Pedersen finished second in three of the first five races, but his form dipped before a resurgance later in the year where he was rapid in Nashville but finished sixth, made the podium at Gateway and earned his first Indy Lights win after 32 starts with a perfect drive at Portland. A few weeks later AJ Foyt Racing announced him as one of its IndyCar drivers for 2023.

But Pedersen only came fifth in the Indy Lights standings. Meanwhile champion Lundqvist – who claimed a fifth win of 2022 in Nashville and only once finished outside the top four all season – is still looking to secure his racing future.

Lundqvist has spent almost all year knocking on the trailer and garage doors of IndyCar teams trying to sell his services as a driver, but confusion reigned for almost a month after he won the title as it emerged Indy Lights’ prize package had been heavily revised and the scholarship to spend on racing in IndyCar was now less valuable. And worst of all, as with many other elements of the 2022 season, there was little willingness from IndyCar to communicate publicly about the matter.

An IndyCar representative told Formula Scout there would be no announcement about the changed distribution of prize money, but said it would match 2021’s series prize pot of $1.2 million.

Except it wasn’t a match, as 2021 champion Kyle Kirkwood’s scholarship was valued at more than $1.3 million and Lundqvist’s at just $500,000.

Photo: Joe Skibinski

“The remaining $700,000 was distributed as race purses – which were not awarded in 2021 – for teams finishing first to fourth each race event ($20k for first, $15k for second, $10k for third, $5,000 for fourth),” the representative explained.

While the redistribution has quite likely made Lundqvist the first Indy Lights champion since Jean-Karl Vernay in 2010 to not step up to IndyCar the year after, it has made it even more attractive for teams to run cars in the series. There are 13 drivers already announced for 2023, with at least three more to come.

The difficulties in landing an IndyCar seat has overshadowed a season from Lundqvist where he had more than two times as many wins and as many poles as anyone else.

There may have not been too much difference in absolute pace between himself and rivals, and there were standout weekends for others where they were clearly the fastest on track, but series sophomore Lundqvist made use of his experience early in the season when it counted to bring home the big points hauls.

It’s not just that the rookies got faster over the season, but Andretti’s four car line-up and HMD’s four and latterly five-car fleet including Pedersen meant improvements were quicker to find between drivers in these two outfits, while the gap back to the solo entry of Ernie Francis Jr (Force Indy) and the usual two-car attacks from Abel Motorsports and TJ Speed was as much down to being outnumbered as it was the inexperience of their drivers and the standards of the teams’ work.

Not all the experienced drivers made use of their advantage, with Brabham – a single-seater returnee admittedly but an Indy Lights winner in 2014 and IndyCar racer in ’16 – not qualifying inside the top three until race 11 of the season at Gateway. HMD’s Danial Frost only cracked the top three on the grid in the race after that at Portland.

Brabham earned a second win of the year at Gateway, and thanks to five other podiums ended up third in the standings. Frost won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but never saw the podium again and came a distant seventh in the championship.

The surprise of the season, bar the unwelcome changes from Penske, and the driver to actually finish second to Lundqvist was Andretti’s sophomore Sting Ray Robb. He was rarely as fast as his team-mates, but made the podium in five of the first seven races and still earned two pole positions.

It took him 49 races to win in USF Pro 2000 (nee Indy Pro 2000) but he then became champion there, and there was only one top-five finish in Robb’s rookie Indy Lights season but in his second year there was only one finish outside of the top six. Consistency earned him his position in the final standings, and after claiming his maiden win at the Laguna Seca finale he then also entered the frame for an IndyCar graduation.

Laps led

1 Lundqvist 255  2 McElrea 99   3 Rasmussen 87   4 Robb 37   5 Pedersen 35   6 Frost 27   7 Brabham 6

Pedersen may well be the only graduate to the top class next year, where he will get to battle 2022’s star rookies Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas, and the worrying thing is Indy Lights looks like it’s headed towards a future where personal backing is what takes drivers to the next step rather than championship-winning calibre at this level.

None of the top three in the standings know where they will be racing in 2023, but the rest of the full-timers (bar IndyCar-bound Pedersen) are already signed up to do battle again and it looks like there could be a wide open title battle next year.

More on Indy Lights
Indy Lights rebrands to Indy Nxt   2023 driver signings   Linus Lundqvist joins the podcast

2022 Indy Lights standings

The post More cars, but less to fight for: 2022 Indy Lights season review appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Linus Lundqvist became Indy Lights champion with a race to go at Laguna Seca, as Sting Ray Robb claimed his maiden win.

It was a trouble-free race for Lundqvist, who only needed to start to take the title. After starting fifth on the grid, he was passed by Hunter McElrea and Jacob Abel early on.

He closed onto the back of Benjamin Pedersen and challenged for position in the opening laps. Despite dipping a wheel into the dirt on lap one, Pedersen held onto the position and Lundqvist settled back in P6.

Danial Frost challenged Lundqvist late on in the race, but there was no way through for Frost and Lundqvist claimed the crown with a sixth place finish.

Matthew Brabham, the only driver who could deny Lundqvist the title if he managed a perfect weekend, started the race on the back foot after being excluded from qualifying. From the back though he stormed through the field, and although debutant Nolan Siegel put up a good defence and held Brabham behind for several laps, a lock-up for Siegel allowed the more experienced driver through.

Brabham continued his charge and had climbed up to eighth by the chequered flag, joining the back of the battle for sixth.

While HMD celebrated the title with Lundqvist, Andretti Autosport celebrated a maiden victory for Robb.

Robb dominated the race from pole, quickly pulling clear of the rest of the field. He managed consistent flying laps and grew his advantage at the front of the field to more than 11 seconds to win and jump up to second in the standings.

Christian Rassmussen had an equally quiet race in second place, finishing more than eight seconds clear of team-mate McElrea in third.

McElrea came under pressure from Jacob Abel late on. Abel spent most of the race defending against Pedersen, and at one point led a four-car train for position. But in the closing laps he managed to shake off Pedersen and close the six-second gap to McElrea. He ran out of laps before he was close enough to make a move, just under a second behind the Andretti driver.

At the tail end of the field, Christian Bogle managed to pass Siegel late on for ninth, and Seigel held off Ernie Francis Jr to finish 10th on debut.

Kyffin Simpson was 12th, while a broken half-shaft for Flinn Lazier meant he spent seven laps in the pitlane and only circulated for the experience.

Race result (35 laps)

The post Lundqvist seals Indy Lights title, Robb takes maiden win at Laguna Seca appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: James Black

Andretti Autosport’s Sting Ray Robb and Christian Rasmussen picked up the pole positions for the final round of the Indy Lights season at Laguna Seca.

Benjamin Pedersen continued his strong form by going fastest early in Q1. He remained at the top of the order with a time of 1m15.8297s until a late flurry of laps knocked him down the order.

Robb, who had jumped up to second and was 0.0055 seconds off Pedersen, improved as he took the chequered flag to go fastest. His final lap stood at 1m15.7209s.

Rasmussen was the last driver to improve, jumping up to second and going just 0.0767s slower than Robb. It pushed Pedersen dropped down to third, ahead of Hunter McElrea and points leader Linus Lundqvist.

Matthew Brabham remains the only driver mathematically in the title fight with Lundqvist, though he will need to win both races and lead more laps than anybody while Lundqvist fail to start in order to win. He went sixth fastest in Q1, but was then excluded from the session for “violation of the driver equivalency weight rule”, meaning he will start 13th and last for Saturday’s race.

Danial Frost was third after the first flying laps, but dropped backwards as others found improvements. While he did improve on his final lap it was only enough to put him seventh, ahead of Kyffin Simpson and debutant Nolan Seigel.

Christian Bogle was the only driver to run into issues in Q1 as he spun at the Corkscrew. The incident was covered under yellow flags and he managed to get going again, though he qualified at the back of the field.

Q2 took place just after Q1 and was just as closely contested, with Rasmussen prevailing by a tiny 0.0170s over Lundqvist.

Robb had got even closer, qualifying within 0.0165s of Rasmussen’s best, but then had his two fastest laps deleted. It knocks him down to third on the grid for the finale, ahead of the closely matched Pedersen and Brabham.

McElrea also had his two fastest laps deleted, both drivers being punished for intefering with another’s session, and ended up qualifying down in ninth.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Sting Ray Robb Andretti Autosport 1m15.7209s
2 Christian Rasmussen Andretti Autosport +0.0767s
3 Benjamin Pedersen Global Racing Group w/ HMD +0.1088s
4 Hunter McElrea Andretti Autosport +0.2091s
5 Linus Lundqvist HMD Motorsports +0.3340s
6 Danial Frost HMD Motorsports +0.6086s
7 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports +0.7592s
8 Kyffin Simpson HMD Motorsports +0.8130s
9 Nolan Siegel HMD Motorsports +1.0290s
10 Ernie Francis Jr Force Indy +1.2261s

Race 2 grid
1 Rasmussen 1m15.3618s
2 Lundqvist +0.0170s
3 Robb +0.1410s
4 Pedersen +0.2502s
5 Matthew Brabham Andretti Autosport +0.2918s
6 Frost +0.3457s
7 Francis +0.5111s
8 Abel +0.5731s
9 McElrea +0.9835s
10 Simpson +1.0788s

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Photo: Travis Hinkle

Andretti Autosport converted its top four domination in Indy Lights qualifying into a podium lockout at Road America, with Christian Rasmussrn claiming his maiden win.

Sting Ray Robb was the driver who took pole, ahead of team-mates Hunter McElrea, Rasmussen and Matthew Brabham.

There was drama from the off in the race, as Robb covered off McElrea and the lead went to Rasmussen at Turn 1 as he took the inside line and Robb was forced out wide.

There was a small gap for Rasmussen already by the time he reached Turn 5, while Brabham went off and dropped behind McElrea and Jacob Abel. The race was then neutralised as Ernie Francis Jr went off into the gravel at Turn 7, but not before Benjamin Pedersen and Abel were able to have a brave side-by-side moment through the Kink.

Racing resumed on lap four, with Francis’s car being recovered and heading to the pits where he got a new nosecone and front tyres, and there was contact between Brabham and McElrea – but no damage – on the restart.

By the next lap yellow flags were out again as Antonio Serravalle suffered an engine failure, and this time the restart didn’t come until lap nine. Robb has big oversteer at the final corner but still got a run on Rasmussen down the pit straight as the track returned to green, and at Turn 1 he went to the inside and Brabham went to the outside.

Both cleared Rasmussen, but Brabham ran off track at the exit and so Rasmussen led again on the run to Turn 3 where Robb dived past under braking. Pedersen flew off track and through several advertising boards but returned to the circuit seemingly undamaged and with the speed to then lunge down the outside at Turn 5.

He briefly got into third but went off at the corner exit as he carried too much speed and fell to seventh. The race was neutralised moments later, as Christian Bogle had launched himself over the kerbs approaching Turn 5 and the front of his car then tore down the catchfencing.

This meant the race had to be stopped entirely, and didn’t restart until several hours later after IndyCar had raced.

Rasmussen passed Robb around the outside exiting Turn 1 as the race’s second half began, and he then pulled away to win and put his double retirement in Detroit behind him.

Robb finished second, while Brabham dropped from third to sixth and points leader Linus Lundqvist climbed from eighth to finish just shy of the podium in fourth place behind McElrea. Pedersen dropped a lap and came ninth, meaning he moves behind Robb in the championship standings.

Race result (20 laps)

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Photo: Chris Owens

Sting Ray Robb ended Linus Lundqvist’s string of pole positions as he topped Indy Lights qualifying at Road America.

The points leader could only manage to go sixth quickest, more than six tenths of a second slower than Robb.

However Lundqvist did set the pace early in qualifying, and he was briefly knocked off the top spot by Andretti Autosport’s Hunter McElrea before setting a 1m54.606s. That then kept him in first place for much of the session before a late flurry of track action.

HMD Motorsports’ Danial Frost lowered the benchmark by a little over a tenth of a second before a series of flying laps by the Andretti driver.

McElrea again moved onto provisional pole for a moment, before team-mate Robb knocked him off the top sport.

Robb managed a 1m53.9743s, becoming the only driver to lap sub-1m54s. His team-mates Christian Rasmussen and Matthew Brabham both improved on their final laps, jumping up to third and fourth to make it an Andretti 1-2-3-4.

HMD team-mates Frost and Lundqvist had to settle for fifth and sixth, just ahead of Benjamin Pedersen, who Lundqvist had to battle for position with on track at one point late in the session.

TJ Speed’s Kyffin Simpson qualified eighth, just over a second slower than Robb. Jacob Abel and Ernie Francis Jr also improved late on to take ninth and 10th on the grid.

Qualifying results

The post Robb leads Andretti 1-2-3-4 at Road America, Lundqvist qualifies sixth appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Matt Fraver

Sting Ray Robb topped free practice for Indy Lights’ double-header weekend on the streets of l Detroit.

The Andretti driver jumped to the top of the order late on with a 1m23.217s lap. The time knocked early pacesetter Linus Lundqvist off the top spot.

Robb further lowered the benchmark, becoming the only driver to set a sub-1m23s lap during the session. He ended the morning with a best of 1m22.894s.

The result puts him in a good position as Indy Lights runs a new format this weekend. Qualifying will be split into two shortened sessions, which will set the grid for a sprint and a feature race around Detroit’s Belle Isle.

Indy Lights is also revising its push-to-pass system this weekend to mirror IndyCar’s time allocation.

“Previously, drivers had to be within 1.5 seconds of the car in front of them and were limited to a minimum of 15 pushes for 15 seconds. Now, like the IndyCar series, there is no minimum gap, and there is a maximum use of 15 seconds at any time for a 50-horsepower boost. Drivers will begin with 150 seconds this weekend,” read a series press release.

Championship leader Lundqvist set the pace early on in practice. Robb and Lundqvist swapped places a number of times but Lundqvist gradually dropped down the order in the closing stages of the session.

Matthew Brabham and Hunter McElrea both jumped ahead of Lundqvist, ending up second and third fastest respectively. Brabham was just 0.106s off Robb’s time when the chequered flag fell.

Benjamin Pedersen was fifth, ahead of Christian Rasmussen and Danial Frost.

Jacob Abel, Kyffin Simpson and Antonio Serravalle completed the top 10.

Ryan Phinny, on the second weekend of his single-seater return, was over four-and-a-half seconds off the pace.

Free practice results

The post Robb fastest in Indy Lights Detroit practice appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

Sting Ray Robb will race for Andretti Autosport in his sophomore Indy Lights season in 2022.

Robb raced for Juncos Racing during the 2021 season, finishing eighth in the standings and recording a best finish of fifth place at the season-ending round at Mid-Ohio.

This was off the back of participating in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship for four years, in which he emerged as champion in his final year for Juncos, taking seven wins in the process.

“I’m so thrilled to be joining the Andretti Autosport family – their history in motorsports is phenomenal and second to none,” said Robb.

“With their experience and resources, I am looking forward to some amazing results. I saw tremendous growth as a driver this past season and am anticipating using all those tools as I move moving forward with the Andretti Autosport team.”

Robb will make his debut for the team in its #2 car at this weekend’s Chris Griffis Memorial Test on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“We are pleased to welcome Sting Ray Robb to Andretti Autosport’s Indy Lights program for 2022,” said J-F Thormann, President of Andretti Autosport. “Sting Ray has shown great progress and talent over the course of his Road to Indy career, and we look forward to seeing what he can accomplish in Indy Lights next season.”

The rest of Andretti’s line-up for this week’s test has yet to be announced, but won’t include Danial Frost who has moved across to HMD Motorsports.

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