» IndyCars: Power romps to Indy GP pole

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.

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