Christian Lundgaard drove a fine race in the 2026 IndyCar season-opener at St. Pete. From 12th on the grid, he charged through to 3rd.
In the opening third of the race, the Dane made slow progress. Taking advantage of Power and Malukas hitting trouble, he was P9 before the stops as Lundgaard cleared fellow Danish driver Rasmussen.
After pitting at the end of lap 34, it allowed him to undercut Grosjean and pass Hauger when the Norwegian returned to the track on cold tyres. Dixon’s demise meant he was P7 when a caution was thrown on lap 40.
Lap 66 was a gigantic moment in his race. First, Marcus Armstrong went deep trying to pass Marcus Ericsson into turn 1 following elbows out defending by the Swede. That allowed O’Ward and Lundgaard through. On the run to turn 4, the Dane got down the inside of his teammate to move into P4, before a big move on Ericsson into turn 10.
With Kyle Kirkwood — who undercut a number of cars at the final round of stops — was struggling on fuel towards the end of it when running P2. On lap 93, McLaughlin made the pass into turn 10, with Lundgaard taking 3rd from the American on the exit.
Despite putting big pressure on the Team Penske driver in the final six laps, the Arrow McLaren driver had to settle for a strong 3rd in round 1 of 2026. Alex Palou was a dominant winner once again.
Christian Lundgaard explains his difficult IndyCar qualifying at St. Pete
Fastest in second and final practice on Saturday morning, the 24-year-old had an underwhelming qualifying, ending up slowest in the Fast 12 to start 2026.
He explained how a change on the car heading into qualifying hurt his Saturday afternoon. Once that change was reversed going into the race, he was back on front-running pace.
“It was a good race.
“I think we just very clearly just missed it in qualifying yesterday. We made some changes after P2 that just simply didn’t work.
“Got out of the car. Obviously didn’t transfer from Q2 and wasn’t necessarily that upset, because I knew exactly where we had gone wrong. It was just undo that, and I think the car just came alive like we expected it to today.
“Again, you have to do the job out there, and I thought it was a very exciting way to start out the season.”
Lundgaard on the decisive passes on O’Ward and Ericsson
Having looked at Pato O’Ward’s rear wing for over 20 laps following the second and final caution, Lundgaard’s aforementioned moves on lap 66 to pass his teammate and Ericsson was critical for him to get on the podium. In the end he gapped both by 13s as they finished P5 and P6.
Asked about battling his teammate, Christian Lundgaard was clearly happy to clear O’Ward and show pace which he believes can put him and the Mexican in contention throughout 2026.
“Yeah, I think I was behind him for a good 20 laps when I started getting annoyed of seeing the back of his car.
“Then once the pit sequence started, some of the three-stoppers were holding us up at that point, and I got around him, which was around the Ericsson part.
“Ericsson fought hard to try to keep that position. I had to fight to get by him. I had to be very aggressive to get by him, which was very nice.
“It gave me some clean air to catch up to Scottie [McLaughlin] at that point.
“But ultimately, I think our cars are good, and I think we will be in the hunt this year.”
Lundgaard happy with St. Pete performance to continue momentum from 2025 IndyCar season
In his first year with Arrow McLaren in 2025, the Danish driver was really, really strong. He finished P5 in points after bagging six podiums.
On road and street courses he pushed Pato O’Ward extremely hard, the first time in years the Mexican faced a genuine challenge from a teammate. Christian Lundgaard has continued that very impressive form to start 2026 to be the lead Arrow McLaren after 100 laps.
He explained the mentality he had last year that he plans to continue in this one.
“Yeah, I feel like we very much left where we picked off in Nashville last year.
“I think next week will be very interesting for us with obviously [Kyle] Moyer on the stand, which feels very funny now sitting next to Scottie [Moyer was previously McLaughlin’s strategist] here.
“But I think ultimately we knew the car was fast this weekend. We knew it was fast here last year. We simply just made a mistake in qualifying, and we made up for it in the race.
“But to go out there and put the results on a paper feels nice now. It wasn’t really what I expected waking up this morning. It was what I hoped for.
“That was the mentality last year. It was just be competitive, knocking on the door, and the results will come. I think that was showcased today as well.”
