INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou won the pole for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix, fending off his challengers during Friday’s qualification session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Palou became the fourth different pole winner this season with a fast lap of 1:09.004.
How It Happened
In the Fast Six, Will Power’s team decided to use both sets of Firestone Reds, including one lap on the first set and the remainder on a new set of Red tires. Christian Lundgaard went on a flyer with two minutes remaining as he went after Power on top of the scoring tower.
His lap at 1:09.0921 put the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver on the pole with Power still on the track.
But it was Palou that knocked Lundgaard off the pole with a lap at 1:09.004 around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Is Palou’s first pole on the road course, though he was last year’s polesitter at the Indianapolis 500.
“It’s been a tough day,” Palou said. “Practice one and two were difficult, but I’ll take it. Great starting position. I’ll take the sticker. It’s great for tomorrow. It’s a tricky place. Any time you can start up front in IndyCar, I’ll take it. It’s my Mom’s birthday tomorrow, so I’ll take it.”
Lundgaard was second at 1:09.0921 in the Hy-Vee Honda and Power was third at 1:09.1636 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.
“Those tires never came in,” Power said. “The used set on the first run were better than those. Maybe I should have run a bit harder on that first set. P3 is pretty good. Any time you are up front in the IndyCar Series, you can win from there. You don’t win a race crashing. You play it smart. I’m going to try to put everything together and try to get a win.”
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was fourth at 1:09.2528 in the No. 2 Chevrolet. He is working this month without his race strategist, Tim Cindric, who was suspended from Team Penske on Tuesday for the scandal involving push-to-pass in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 10.
Jon Bouslog is serving as Newgarden’s race strategist.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren was fifth at 1:09.3320 in the No. 6 Chevrolet with Scott Dixon rounded out the Fast Six in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda at 1:09.5270 for Chip Ganassi Racing.
None of the three Andretti Global cars made the “Fast 12.”
In Segment 2, Lundgaard went to the top with less than two minutes left before Power knocked him off the top with less than one minute remaining. Palou and O’Ward both ran laps before Newgarden moved into the top six in the closing seconds.
Lundgaard took the top spot on his final lap, but Power regained the No. 1 position at the checkered flag.
That sent Power, Lundgaard, Palou, O’Ward, Newgarden and Dixon into the Fast Six.
Alexander Rossi barely missed getting into the Fast Six by two-hundredths of a second.
Dixon’s lap was 1:09.0616 and Rossi’s lap was 1:09.0801.
“I don’t know how excited I should be starting seventh, but where we have been in this sport, you have to take the small victories,” Rossi said. “We have to keep chipping away at it. It sucks to miss it that close. It’s the way of the game. We know we are strong on Race Day. I think the 7 car is one of the best cars on (Saturday). I feel like we will get through a few cars at the start.”
The drivers that missed the “Fast Six” out of the second round were, in order, Rossi, Marcus Armstrong, Graham Rahal, Felix Rosenqvist, Pietro Fittipaldi and Rinus VeeKay.
“I can race from ninth,” Rahal said. “We have not had an easy day. That’s the facts. Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong today. The guys pushed me out of the pits, just to get it to go today. It’s going to be a tough race from ninth. We know what Christian can do here, but we are not as good as we were in Race 2. We’ll see what happens.
“I know people think I complain too much, but we just don’t have luck on the 15 car. We haven’t had luck in the last 10 years. They work hard getting the engine replaced and then the clutch fails. I don’t understand what we have to do to change things, but we will do whatever we can to turn it around.”
Both Rahal and Marcus Armstrong had to replace engines earlier in the first practice session when their Honda’s had issues. Armstrong was able to recover in time to lineup up eighth with a lap at 1:09.1175.
“It makes you want to punch yourself in the face when you don’t nail it,” Armstrong said.