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Kirkwood, who won at Long Beach two years ago after qualifying first, started on the pole again Sunday, lining up next to Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta of Santa Clarita.

F1 had previously rejected a bid from the US team Andretti, which was linked to Cadillac.

The new team, which has a UK base at Silverstone, will be a joint effort between GM and TWG, with Dan Towriss, owner of US team Andretti Global, and TWG's Mark Walter as the other key investors.

Former Indycar and F1 driver Michael Andretti is no longer involved with the team he founded.

F1 was swayed by key factors that it saw as differentiators over the initial Andretti bid.