Reigning IndyCar Series champion Will Power has continued Team Penske’s domination of qualifying in the 2015 season after claiming pole position for Saturday’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the speedway’s road course layout.
The Australian chalked up his 38th career pole position with a record-breaking 1:09.6716 time in the first round of qualifying, and subsequently topped both the ‘Round 2’ and ‘Firestone Fast Six’ sessions.
Despite not being able to lap at the same speed he showed in the first knockout phase of qualifying, Power still finished two-tenths of a second clear of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who managed to prevent another Team Penske 1-2-3-4 rout by lapping quicker than Hélio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud in the final session.
The 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, Tony Kanaan, qualified sixth-fastest in the second Chip Ganassi entry, giving the Chevrolet aero and engine runners another sweep of the first three rows of the grid.
Sébastien Bourdais just missed out on a ‘Fast Six’ berth, qualifying his KVSH Racing entry seventh-fastest ahead of former teammate Sebastián Saavedra, making his second appearance for Chip Ganassi.
Rookie drivers Luca Filippi and Stefano Coletti claimed the fifth row of the grid, ahead of Jack Hawksworth and the winner of the preceding Grand Prix of Alabama, Josef Newgarden.
Worryingly for the Honda-aero runners, the Chevrolet kitted cars claimed all of the top-ten positions on the grid.
Such is the disparity between the two designs, the likes of the Andretti Autosport stable weren’t able to have a single one of its four cars break into the Top 12 stage of qualifying. Justin Wilson – making a one-off appearance for the team – was the fastest of the quartet, and will start from a lowly eighteenth on the grid.
The Grand Prix of Indianapolis starts at 15:45 local time (GMT -04:00).
2015 IndyCar Series Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis – Qualifying Results | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grid | ‘Fast Six’ Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Time | Gap | ||
1. | Will Power | ![]() |
Team Penske | ![]() |
1:09.489 | |
2. | Scott Dixon | ![]() |
Chip Ganassi Racing | ![]() |
1:09.716 | + 0.227 |
3. | Hélio Castroneves | ![]() |
Team Penske | ![]() |
1:09.739 | + 0.250 |
4. | Juan Pablo Montoya | ![]() |
Team Penske | ![]() |
1:09.807 | + 0.319 |
5. | Simon Pagenaud | ![]() |
Team Penske | ![]() |
1:09.872 | + 0.383 |
6. | Tony Kanaan | ![]() |
Chip Ganassi Racing | ![]() |
1:10.277 | + 0.789 |
Grid | ‘Top 12’ Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Time | Gap* | ||
7. | Sébastien Bourdais | ![]() |
KVSH Racing | ![]() |
1:10.023 | + 0.379 |
8. | Sebastián Saavedra | ![]() |
Chip Ganassi Racing | ![]() |
1:10.157 | + 0.513 |
9. | Luca Filippi | ![]() |
CFH Racing | ![]() |
1:10.197 | + 0.553 |
10. | Stefano Coletti | ![]() |
KV Racing Technology | ![]() |
1:10.368 | + 0.724 |
11. | Jack Hawksworth | ![]() |
A.J. Foyt Racong | ![]() |
1:10.456 | + 0.812 |
12. | Josef Newgarden | ![]() |
CFH Racing | ![]() |
1:10.832 | + 1.188 |
Grid | ‘Group 1’ Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Time | Gap** | ||
13. | James Hinchcliffe | ![]() |
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | ![]() |
1:10.627 | + 0.588 |
15. | J.R. Hildebrand | ![]() |
CFH Racing | ![]() |
1:10.638 | + 0.599 |
17. | Graham Rahal | ![]() |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan | ![]() |
1:10.648 | + 0.609 |
19. | Ryan Hunter-Reay | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | ![]() |
1:10.835 | + 0.795 |
21. | Carlos Muñoz | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | ![]() |
1:10.879 | + 0.839 |
23. | Carlos Huertas | ![]() |
Dale Coyne Racing | ![]() |
1:12.504 | + 2.464 |
Grid | ‘Group 2’ Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Time | Gap*** | ||
14. | Charlie Kimball | ![]() |
Chip Ganassi Racing | ![]() |
1:10.503 | + 0.723 |
16. | Gabby Chaves | ![]() |
Bryan Herta Autosport | ![]() |
1:10.528 | + 0.748 |
18. | Justin Wilson | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | ![]() |
1:10.578 | + 0.798 |
19. | James Jakes | ![]() |
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | ![]() |
1:10.675 | + 0.895 |
20. | Takuma Sato | ![]() |
A.J. Foyt Racing | ![]() |
1:10.739 | + 0.959 |
22. | Marco Andretti | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | ![]() |
1:11.164 | + 1.384 |
24. | Franceso Dracone | ![]() |
Dale Coyne Racing | ![]() |
1:12.581 | + 2.801 |
- * Denotes gap to fastest ‘Top 12’ qualifying session time of 1:09.644 posted by Will Power. Fastest six qualifiers progress to the ‘Fast Six’ shootout for pole position.
- ** Denotes gap to fastest ‘Group 1’ qualifying session time of 1:10.039 posted by Simon Pagenaud. Fastest six qualifiers progress to ‘Top 12’ stage, with the remaining drivers occupying the odd-numbered grid positions 13, 15, 17, etc.
- *** Denotes gap to fastest ‘Group 2’ qualifying session time of 1:09.800 posted by Scott Dixon. Fastest six qualifiers progress to ‘Top 12’ stage, with the remaining drivers occupying the even-numbered grid positions 14, 16, 18, etc.
Image via Motorsport.com
Richard Bailey
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