Dario Franchitti has claimed his second pole position of the 2011 IndyCar season with a dominant display during qualifying for the MoveThatBlock Indy 225 at New Hampshire.
The championship leader used his qualifying allotment – late in the one-hour session – to post a two-lap average speed over 170mph, a full 1mph faster than second-quickest driver Oriol Servià managed.
The Scot looks set to extend his championship points’ advantage over main rival Will Power, who could only qualify 13th-fastest, having unluckily drawn the allotment of being the first driver out on track to attempt to post a time.
Servià’s strong oval racing form continued on what was an excellent day for Newman/Haas, with his rookie team-mate James Hinchcliffe qualifying fourth-fastest. The Canadian rookie was denied he third-quickest time by Tony Kanaan, who set his time early in the session.
The third row of the grid is occupied by Ryan Hunter-Reay – undoubtedly the most consistent qualifier in the Andretti stable – and Ryan Briscoe, who was Penske’s best representative.
The top-ten was completed by Mid-Ohio race-winner Scott Dixon, KV Racing’s Takuma Sato, Hélio Castroneves in the third Penske and Chip Ganassi’s Charlie Kimball.
IndyCar returnee Tomas Scheckter qualified 18th-fastest, while Graham Rahal was the biggest loser in the session, losing crucial momentum for the start of his flying laps when he had a wild moment on his warm-up lap. His Ganassi entry stepped out at the back while he piloted through Turn 3, and the 22-year-old is now facing a busy race day as he tries to climb up the order from 23rd on the grid.
Pippa Mann failed to post a time, with her session being spent in hospital to investigate an injury to her left foot. She is unlikely to make the start of the race.
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2011 MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 (New Hampshire) Qualifying Results:
Driver | Team | Time | Speed | ||
1. | Dario Franchitti | ![]() |
Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 43.1976 | 170.843 |
2. | Oriol Servià | ![]() |
Newman/Haas Racing | 43.4549 | 169.831 |
3. | Tony Kanaan | ![]() |
KV Racing Technology Lotus | 43.4890 | 169.698 |
4. | James Hinchcliffe | ![]() |
Newman/Haas Racing | 43.5168 | 169.590 |
5. | Ryan Hunter-Reay | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | 43.5219 | 169.570 |
6. | Ryan Briscoe | ![]() |
Team Penske | 43.5524 | 169.451 |
7. | Scott Dixon | ![]() |
Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 43.6391 | 169.114 |
8. | Takuma Sato | ![]() |
KV Racing Technology Lotus | 43.6573 | 169.004 |
9. | Hélio Castroneves | ![]() |
Team Penske | 43.6981 | 168.886 |
10. | Charlie Kimball | ![]() |
Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing | 43.8155 | 168.434 |
11. | JR Hildebrand | ![]() |
Panther Racing | 43.9164 | 168.047 |
12. | Mike Conway | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | 43.9672 | 167.852 |
13. | Will Power | ![]() |
Team Penske | 44.1886 | 167.011 |
14. | Alex Lloyd | ![]() |
Dale Coyne Racing | 44.2242 | 166.877 |
15. | Danica Patrick | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | 44.2356 | 166.834 |
16. | Alex Tagliani | ![]() |
Sam Schmidt Motorsports | 44.2421 | 166.809 |
17. | EJ Viso | ![]() |
KV Racing Technology Lotus | 44.3148 | 166.536 |
18. | Tomas Scheckter | ![]() |
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 44.3561 | 166.381 |
19. | Vitor Meira | ![]() |
AJ Foyt Enterprises | 44.3901 | 166.253 |
20. | James Jakes | ![]() |
Dale Coyne Racing | 44.6556 | 165.265 |
21. | Ana Beatriz | ![]() |
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 44.7387 | 164.958 |
22. | Marco Andretti | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | 44.8027 | 164.722 |
23. | Graham Rahal | ![]() |
Service Central Chip Ganassi | 45.0505 | 163.816 |
24. | Sebastian Saavedra | ![]() |
Conquest Racing | 45.4755 | 162.285 |
25. | Ed Carpenter | ![]() |
Sarah Fisher Racing | 45.6304 | 161.734 |
26. | Simona de Silvestro | ![]() |
HVM Racing | 46.8758 | 157.437 |
DNQ. | Pippa Mann | ![]() |
Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan | no time |
[Images via IZOD IndyCar Series]
Richard Bailey
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