Penske driver Will Power has won pole position for Saturday’s IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis, ahead of reigning champion and points leader Álex Palou.
Power has become the fifth different driver to win pole position in five races this season. After setting the fastest time in his group during first round qualifying, Power advanced through the second round and, took pole position with a lap time of 1’09.766.Palou will start on the outside of the front row from second place, ahead of Josef Newgarden in third. Conor Daly was the surprise of the Fast Six qualifying stage, advancing to the pole shootout and qualifying fourth for Ed Carpenter Racing.
McLaren SP lock out the third row with Alabama GP winner Pato O’Ward in fifth ahead of team mate Felix Rosenqvist. The fourth row is shared by recent Formula 2 alumni, Callum Ilott seventh in the sole Juncos Hollinger entry, next to RLL’s Christian Lundgaard in eighth, four places lower than he achieved in his IndyCar debut at this track last year.
Jack Harvey and Romain Grosjean complete the top ten, the latter starting directly ahead of Graham Rahal (12th), two weeks after their hotly debated on-track confrontation at Barber Motorsports Park. Rahal shared row six with Scott McLaughlin, who sits second in the championship.
Outside the first six rows, some of the notable names starting further back in the field include Colton Herta (14th), defending Indy GP winner Rinus VeeKay (15th), Alexander Rossi (16th), Hélio Castroneves (19th), Simon Pagenaud (20th), and Scott Dixon (21st).
In his first race of the season, two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 23rd of the 27 runners in McLaren SP’s number six car.
Power took his sixth pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and career pole position number 64, bringing him within three of Mario Andretti’s all-time record. Power won the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indy last summer, his fourth win at the speedway road course.
The green flag for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will wave tomorrow at 20:45 BST. The 85-lap race will kick off the month of May at Indianapolis before a week of practice and time trials for the 106th Indianapolis 500 commences.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
| Position | Car | Driver | Team | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | Will Power | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 2 | 10 | Alex Palou | Ganassi | Honda |
| 3 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 4 | 20 | Conor Daly | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 5 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | McLaren SP | Chevrolet |
| 6 | 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | McLaren SP | Chevrolet |
| 7 | 77 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 8 | 30 | Christian Lundgaard | RLL | Honda |
| 9 | 45 | Jack Harvey | RLL | Honda |
| 10 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti | Honda |
| 11 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 12 | 15 | Graham Rahal | RLL | Honda |
| 13 | 51 | Takuma Sato | Coyne/RWR | Honda |
| 14 | 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti | Honda |
| 15 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 16 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti | Honda |
| 17 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Steinbrenner | Honda |
| 18 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | Ganassi | Honda |
| 19 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 20 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 21 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi | Honda |
| 22 | 14 | Kyle Kirkwood | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 23 | 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | McLaren SP | Chevrolet |
| 24 | 18 | David Malukas | Coyne/HMD | Honda |
| 25 | 11 | Tatiana Calderon | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 26 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 27 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Ganassi | Honda |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
IndyCar
- Too tight, too short, too bumpy: Detroit pole-winner Palou criticises new track
- Palou takes a hat trick of IndyCar poles at Detroit
- Unusual double-sided Detroit pit lane poses familiar problems for IndyCar drivers
- Little room to pass on IndyCar’s new Detroit track without “creating carnage”
- Kanaan doesn’t want to “spoil the moment I had” by returning to Indy 500
