Team Penske-Chevrolet's Simon Pagenaud will start the Grand Prix of Indianapolis from pole position after taking advantage of several big names falling early on Friday afternoon.
Pagenaud set a lap record around the Indianapolis road course in the process as he eclipsed Charlie Kimball to the top spot with a 1m08.6868s to secure his second consecutive pole and his fourth IndyCar series pole.
A number of high-profile drivers – and title challengers – were eliminated during the second stage of qualifying, including the Penske duo of Juan Pablo Montoya – eighth – and Will Power – 12th – and the Ganassi Dallara-Chevrolet of Scott Dixon eventually finishing ninth.
Montoya and Power were involved in an unusual incident which compromised them both. The Colombian received a 10-minute punishment for ignoring the checkered flag at the end of the first qualifying stage, which compromised his strategy, but Power made his own mistake when he pulled over to let Montoya pass, believing he was on a quick lap when he wasn't, which compromised his own quick lap.
Starting behind Kimball will be Graham Rahal in third, while James Hinchcliffe put the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda into fourth place on the grid.
Josef Newgarden starts fifth for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet ahead of Jack Hawksworth and Tony Kanaan in seventh.
Briton's Max Chilton narrowly missed out on the top-12 by just 0.0029s, meaning he will start alongside fellow former-F1 driver Alexander Rossi on the seventh row of the grid.
|
Rank |
Car |
Driver Name |
C/A/E/T |
Time |
Speed |
|
1 |
22 |
Pagenaud, Simon |
D/C/C/F |
01:08.6868 |
127.832 |
|
2 |
83 |
Kimball, Charlie |
D/C/C/F |
01:08.9816 |
127.286 |
|
3 |
15 |
Rahal, Graham |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.1816 |
126.918 |
|
4 |
5 |
Hinchcliffe, James |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.2260 |
126.837 |
|
5 |
21 |
Newgarden, Josef |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.4316 |
126.461 |
|
6 |
41 |
Hawksworth, Jack |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.5141 |
126.311 |
|
7 |
10 |
Kanaan, Tony |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.2511 |
126.791 |
|
8 |
2 |
Montoya, Juan Pablo |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.2645 |
126.766 |
|
9 |
9 |
Dixon, Scott |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.4010 |
126.517 |
|
10 |
11 |
Bourdais, Sebastien |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.4436 |
126.439 |
|
11 |
7 |
Aleshin, Mikhail |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.6771 |
126.016 |
|
12 |
12 |
Power, Will |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.9297 |
125.560 |
|
13 |
8 |
Chilton, Max (R) |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.3289 |
126.648 |
|
14 |
98 |
Rossi, Alexander (R) |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.1475 |
126.981 |
|
15 |
3 |
Castroneves, Helio |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.4947 |
126.346 |
|
16 |
61 |
Brabham, Matt (R) |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.2944 |
126.712 |
|
17 |
28 |
Hunter-Reay, Ryan |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.5276 |
126.287 |
|
18 |
6 |
Hildebrand, JR |
D/C/C/F |
01:09.4377 |
126.450 |
|
19 |
26 |
Munoz, Carlos |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.6457 |
126.072 |
|
20 |
16 |
Pigot, Spencer (R) |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.4591 |
126.411 |
|
21 |
27 |
Andretti, Marco |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.7478 |
125.888 |
|
22 |
14 |
Sato, Takuma |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.4659 |
126.399 |
|
23 |
35 |
Tagliani, Alex |
D/H/H/F |
01:10.4109 |
124.702 |
|
24 |
18 |
Daly, Conor (R) |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.4795 |
126.374 |
|
25 |
19 |
Chaves, Gabby |
D/H/H/F |
01:09.7720 |
125.844 |
