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Qualifying report

Detroit IndyCar: Andretti takes brilliant pole for Race 1

Marco Andretti took his first pole position in almost five years, when he emerged from Group 2 of qualifying with a time almost half a second quicker than his closest opposition.

Marco Andretti, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda

Marco Andretti, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda

Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Marco Andretti, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Robert Wickens, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport Honda
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport Honda
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing Honda

The Andretti-Herta Autosport-Honda driver danced the #98 car around the 2.35-mile street course in 1min14.8514sec, beating Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda’s Robert Wickens by 0.4753sec and, Andretti’s teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.4837sec.

Said Andretti: “I’m definitely embarrassed to say this is my first [road/street course pole]… Extremely pleased to execute today. Yesterday I knew we had the speed… so I knew we had it in the car. All I had to do was execute, and I was able to do that instead of just talking, ‘Oh we would have been first.’ Now we are.”

The qualifying system for Detroit double header has the field split in half, each group getting 12mins, with the faster group lining up 1-3-5-7- etc. the slower group on 2-4-6-8- etc.  Thus Andretti will be joined on the front row by Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, who topped Group 1 with a 1min 15.4186sec lap, just 0.076sec ahead of Alexander Rossi.

Thanks to being third fastest in that first group, Will Power will roll off sixth fastest, fastest Penske driver and also fastest Chevrolet-powered driver.  After setting the fastest time of the group on primary compound, the Indy 500 winner then hit traffic while his alternate ‘reds’ were at their peak, and his 1min15.7210 was never going to be enough to stave off Dixon and Rossi

Last year’s winner of both Detroit races, Graham Rahal, will start eighth, while Carlin Racing-Chevrolet’s Max Chilton deserves special mention for finishing Group 1 in P5, beating Penske’s reigning champion Josef Newgarden. Chilton will therefore start 10th, the rookie team’s highest grid position.

IndyCar debutant Santino Ferrucci will start 18th in the #19 Dale Coyne Racing-Honda.

The first race begins today at 3.45pm local (Eastern) time. Grid order at the bottom of this page.

IndyCar, Detroit qualifying Group 2

ClaDriverLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 98 united_states  Marco Andretti  7 1'14.8514     113.024
2 6 canada  Robert Wickens  7 1'15.3267 0.4753 0.4753 112.311
3 28 united_states  Ryan Hunter-Reay  7 1'15.3351 0.4837 0.0084 112.298
4 30 japan  Takuma Sato  7 1'15.3920 0.5406 0.0569 112.213
5 5 canada  James Hinchcliffe  8 1'15.5402 0.6888 0.1482 111.993
6 10 united_arab_emirates  Ed Jones  7 1'15.8876 1.0362 0.3474 111.481
7 22 france  Simon Pagenaud  8 1'16.0099 1.1585 0.1223 111.301
8 14 brazil  Tony Kanaan  8 1'16.0740 1.2226 0.0641 111.208
9 18 france  Sébastien Bourdais  7 1'16.2205 1.3691 0.1465 110.994
10 88 colombia  Gabby Chaves  7 1'16.2311 1.3797 0.0106 110.978
11 4 brazil  Matheus Leist  7 1'16.4182 1.5668 0.1871 110.707
12 32 austria  Rene Binder  7 1'18.6108 3.7594 2.1926 107.619

IndyCar, Detroit qualifying Group 1

ClaDriverLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 9 new_zealand  Scott Dixon  7 1'15.4186     112.174
2 27 united_states  Alexander Rossi  7 1'15.4946 0.0760 0.0760 112.061
3 12 australia  Will Power  8 1'15.7210 0.3024 0.2264 111.726
4 15 united_states  Graham Rahal  7 1'15.8273 0.4087 0.1063 111.569
5 59 united_kingdom  Max Chilton  7 1'16.0396 0.6210 0.2123 111.258
6 21 united_states  Spencer Pigot  8 1'16.1430 0.7244 0.1034 111.107
7 1 united_states  Josef Newgarden  7 1'16.1923 0.7737 0.0493 111.035
8 26 united_states  Zach Veach  6 1'16.3157 0.8971 0.1234 110.855
9 19 united_states  Santino Ferrucci  7 1'16.7531 1.3345 0.4374 110.224
10 20 united_kingdom  Jordan King  7 1'16.9075 1.4889 0.1544 110.002
11 23 united_states  Charlie Kimball  7 1'17.2067 1.7881 0.2992 109.576

Thus the grid order will be:

1 Marco Andretti, Andretti-Herta Autosport-Honda
2 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
3 Robert Wickens, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda
4 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport-Honda
5 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport-Honda
6 Will Power, Team Penske-Chevrolet
7 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
8 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
9 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda
10 Max Chilton, Carlin Racing-Chevrolet 
11 Ed Jones, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
12 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
13 Simon Pagenaud, Penske-Chevrolet
14 Josef Newgarden, Penske-Chevrolet
15 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet
16 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport-Honda
17 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing-Honda 
18 Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing-Honda
19 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing-Chevrolet
20 Jordan King, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
21 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet
22 Charlie Kimball, Carlin Racing-Chevrolet 
23 Rene Binder, Juncos Racing-Chevrolet

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