St. Petersburg – Qualifying: Linus seals front row slot after losing pole in dying moments

Linus appeared on course for pole position for large proportions of the first qualifying session of 2022 at St. Petersburg, but was eventually bumped to top spot as the clock ticked down to zero.

After topping this morning’s practice session, Linus was on strong form once again in qualifying for Sunday’s season-opening race, holding P1 for much of the 30-minute session.

As the very last laps were being completed, however, Andretti Autosport’s Hunter McElrea found clear air to throw in a 1m05.281s, demoting Linus by 0.292 seconds.

Linus managed to split the leading Andretti cars, though, with Sting Ray Robb another tenth back in P3.The outcome leaves Linus on the front row of the grid for the first race of the season.

“It always hurts to lose pole like that when you’ve led most of the session, but hats off to Hunter (McElrea) for a great last lap.

“We had some little issues in this session, with an alternator failure and a battery warning, so it could probably have been a bit better. Still, we’re on the front row, which is not a bad place to start. I’m relatively happy and confident that we can fight for the win – it’s going to be a long race around here this year.”

The field will be back on track this afternoon for a final practice session, which will mark the last opportunity to fine-tune set-ups ahead of Sunday’s season-opening 60-minute race.