» IndyCars: Back-to-back poles for Bourdais

Sébastien Bourdais has showcased his wet-weather prowess at Mid-Ohio by claiming his second IndyCar Series pole position in as many weekends.

After claiming his first post-CART/F1 pole position and win last weekend on the streets of Toronto, the Frenchman picked his way through two rain-affected qualifying segments en route to the ‘Fast Six’ shootout for pole. He then triumphed in that as well, delivering a 1:24.161 time on his final tour of the slowly drying track.

Bourdais overcame a serious threat from IndyCar youngster Josef Newgarden, who put his Sarah Fisher Hartman entry on provisional pole position in the final two minutes. While he also managed to post his quickest lap on his final tour, it wasn’t enough to usurp the four-time Champ Car title-winner.

Tony Kanaan will carry the hopes of the Chip Ganassi team – which has won all but one of the IndyCar races held here since the series was re-formed – with the third-fastest qualifying time. The Brazilian’s teammates Ryan Briscoe, defending race-winner Charlie Kimball and defending series champion Scott Dixon will all start from the final two rows of the grid.

Briscoe and Dixon were docked their two fastest lap times for spinning in the wet conditions and triggering a red flag – a fate that also befell Takuma Sato and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Carlos Muñoz qualified fourth-fastest ahead of Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, while Penske’s Will Power was best-placed championship contender in sixth. Power’s main championship rival, his teammate Hélio Castroneves, failed to make out of the ‘Group’ qualifying phases and starts a lowly fifteenth.

2014 IndyCar Series Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Qualifying:

	‘Fast Six’ Session	Team / Entry	Time
1.	Sébastien Bourdais	KV Racing Technology Honda	1:24.1610
2.	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda	+ 0.5177
3.	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	+ 0.8680
4.	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport Honda	+ 1.1501
5.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport Honda	+ 1.2849
6.	Will Power	Team Penske Chevrolet	+ 2.0082
	‘Round 2’ Session	Team / Entry	Time
7.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda	1:33.3244
8.	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing Honda	1:33.3948
9.	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda	1:33.5587
10.	Carlos Huertas	Dale Coyne Racing Honda	1:33.6635
11.	Juan Pablo Montoya*	Team Penske Chevrolet	1:34.7103
12.	Mike Conway	Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet	1:34.8194
	Group Sessions	Team / Entry	Time
13.	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda	1:39.4755
14.	Sebastián Saavedra	KV Racing Technology / AFS Racing Honda	1:39.0743
15.	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske Chevrolet	1:39.8694
16.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport Honda	1:39.8368
17.	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport Honda	1:41.5197
18.	Jack Hawksworth	Bryan Herta Autosport Honda	1:40.0797
19.	Ryan Briscoe*	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	no time
20.	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	1:40.8624
21.	Takuma Sato*	A.J. Foyt Enterprises Honda	no time
22.	Scott Dixon*	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	no time