– Mick Schumacher (RLL-Honda; 13th/4th) delivered another excellent qualifying on a short oval, although it had not been anticipated on Friday. In qualifying at the Milwaukee Mile, he secured the 13th starting position on Saturday and fourth on Sunday. This repeated his excellent result from Phoenix at the start of the season, where he also started fourth.
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The son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher was up second due to his second-to-last championship position. He burned two clean laps into the asphalt under heavy cloud cover. (Qualifying result Saturday race)
Since two races are held this weekend, the first lap counted for the first race, the second for the second race. Schumacher’s first lap was 162.344 miles per hour, and on the second, he improved to 163.244 mph. (Qualifying result Sunday race)
That the second lap is faster than the first is very unusual in IndyCar. So it is not surprising that Schumacher was overtaken by several drivers in the first lap, but they fell behind him in the second.
One after another, drivers bit their teeth on his mark on the second lap. Will Power (Andretti-Honda) probably would have caught him but went into understeer in turn 4 and fell behind Schumacher.
So there was actually a quiet hope that Schumacher might snag a sensational pole, but it was just not quite enough. Only Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet) ultimately managed to displace Schumacher from the top spot.
Photo gallery: Mick Schumacher’s results in the 2026 IndyCar season
“Of course, you can dream, but I probably have to wait a little longer. The car didn’t feel 100 percent good. To still be up there on the second lap is great,” he said just as Newgarden had displaced him.
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“This is definitely a good opportunity for us to score good points. We have some work ahead of us in the first race, but as it looks, we are not doing so badly there either.”
Schumacher starts by far as the best RLL driver in the Sunday race. For the Saturday race, teammate Louis Foster (RLL-Honda) intercepted him with the ninth-best lap. He even benefits from the engine penalty against O’Ward and thus starts eighth. Graham Rahal (RLL-Honda), on the other hand, disappointed. The veteran struggled with understeer.
The fastest lap of the day was set by Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet) at 165.536 mph (266.4 km/h) on his first lap. However, the former Supercars champion will be moved back nine grid places because he changed the engine.
Curiously, this also applies to Palou and David Malukas (Penske-Chevrolet), who took second and third places. Annoying for Schumacher: If he had finished one place better on the first lap, he would have gained these three places. Thus, O’Ward starts from pole with the fourth-best lap in the first race.
For Sunday, Palou qualified on pole position with a 164 mph lap. The Saturday race starts at 8:50 PM. (All info on the IndyCar double-header in Milwaukee)
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