Romain Grosjean has described taking his maiden IndyCar pole position as “like being alive again”, and said it’s the happiest he’s been “in a long time”.
The Dale Coyne Racing with RWR driver clinched the top spot at the Indianapolis road course in just his third IndyCar outing to claim his first pole since 2011’s Turkish GP2 round.
Speaking immediately after the session, the Frenchman exclaimed: “It’s like being alive again.
“When you get to Formula 1, you’ve won every category that you competed in before, but you know when you get to Formula 1 if you don’t have the best car, it’s going to be very unlikely that you get to win races.
“I was lucky early in my career to get a good Lotus and to be in the front row, third spot quite a bit, which was great. But obviously there were the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel at the time and just on another level.
“It feels really good to be in IndyCar on a field that everyone got a chance to go for it.”
Grosjean had some doubts about where he might finish in qualifying, but ultimately beat two-time champion Josef Newgarden by 0.1269s.
“Amazing,” Grosjean said. “When I saw the [qualifying] group I was in, I was like, ‘Oh, dear, if we can get out of the first group, we’re going to be OK,’ and we did. That last few laps, we were on it. What a day for us.
“I’m happier than I have been in a very long time.”
The former Haas F1 driver suggested the track layout, which has been used previously in F1 – albeit never raced on by Grosjean – meant he was more comfortable and familiar with the layout.
“I can tell it was actually designed for Formula 1 the way the curves are, the layout and the corners. I knew I was going to feel okay on the track quite quickly, whereas St. Pete takes a little bit more time to learn. Barber, a few tricks here that you need to understand. Here for me it’s a bit more straightforward.”
Dale Coyne, team owner, added: “When you look at his resume and how great he was before he got into Formula 1, and Formula 1 is such a team performance issue, we knew he could win races and we knew he could win poles. He’s proven it today.”
I’m very happy for him, he deserves success for the way he has handled himself after that horrible crash last year. He displayed courage and calmness when it happened, and has made an admirable recovery since. Plus, he has been a talented driver hamstrung by an underperforming car for the last several seasons, and therefore was due a decent opportunity to prove his qualities again.