Indy GP: Power edges Wickens to take 51st IndyCar pole
Will Power scored his first pole of the season, his third on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and the 51st of his Indy car career, beating Robert Wickens by a mere 0.087sec.
Photo by: Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images
The Team Penske-Chevrolet driver chose an unusual tactic in the Firestone Fast Six, setting a strong banker lap on one set of alternate tires – clocking a time that would have earned him fifth – and then going out on a newer (but still used) set to nail a 69.8182sec.
Power’s 51st pole lifts him to joint third in the all-time pole-winner’s list with Helio Castroneves (although one of the Brazilian’s poles came as a result of heat races at Iowa rather than a 'normal' qualifying session).
After a slow start to the day, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda rebounded fantastically to not only get Wickens onto the front row, but also James Hinchcliffe into fourth. The pair will be split by Sebastien Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing-Honda.
Jordan King continued to star, grabbing fifth for Ed Carpenter Racing – and beating points leader and reigning champion Josef Newgarden to the status of second-fastest Chevy driver.
2014 and 2016 Indy GP winner Simon Pagenaud fell just 0.03sec short of making it through to Q3 and will line up his #22 Penske in seventh alongside Alexander Rossi who had been blazingly quick in the two practice sessions. This year’s Long Beach winner will nonetheless be the highest-starting Andretti Autosport-Honda driver.
Spencer Pigot was a quarter second off ECR teammate King’s Q2 time, but qualified ahead of Penske’s temporary fourth man, Helio Castroneves. Takuma Sato was 11th for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, while AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy’s veteran Tony Kanaan claimed 12th.
Hunter-Reay missed escaping Q1 by just a couple of hundredths of a second, and will line up alongside teammate Marco Andretti who had a similar near-miss in the second group of Q1. But the biggest surprise was the failure of the two Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas to reach the top dozen, Ed Jones and Scott Dixon lining up 15th and 18th as their handling went away as the track heated up.
By contrast Max Chilton overperformed to land 16th for Carlin-Chevrolet ahead of not only Dixon but two-time Indy GP runner-up Graham Rahal in the second RLLR-Honda.
IndyCar 2018 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, qualifying
Q3
| Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 |  Will Power |
3 | 1'09.8182 | 125.761 | ||
| 2 | 6 |  Robert Wickens |
2 | 1'09.9052 | 0.0870 | 0.0870 | 125.604 |
| 3 | 18 |  Sébastien Bourdais |
2 | 1'09.9449 | 0.1267 | 0.0397 | 125.533 |
| 4 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe |
2 | 1'10.0858 | 0.2676 | 0.1409 | 125.281 |
| 5 | 20 |  Jordan King |
2 | 1'10.1326 | 0.3144 | 0.0468 | 125.197 |
| 6 | 1 |  Josef Newgarden |
1 | 1'10.7276 | 0.9094 | 0.5950 | 124.144 |
Q2
| Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Robert Wickens |
6 | 1'09.8481 | 125.707 | ||
| 2 | 20 | Jordan King |
5 | 1'09.8879 | 0.0398 | 0.0398 | 125.635 |
| 3 | 12 | Will Power |
5 | 1'09.9156 | 0.0675 | 0.0277 | 125.586 |
| 4 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe |
5 | 1'09.9570 | 0.1089 | 0.0414 | 125.511 |
| 5 | 18 | Sébastien Bourdais |
5 | 1'09.9973 | 0.1492 | 0.0403 | 125.439 |
| 6 | 1 | Josef Newgarden |
6 | 1'10.0067 | 0.1586 | 0.0094 | 125.422 |
| 7 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud |
5 | 1'10.0382 | 0.1901 | 0.0315 | 125.366 |
| 8 | 27 | Alexander Rossi |
6 | 1'10.1062 | 0.2581 | 0.0680 | 125.244 |
| 9 | 21 | Spencer Pigot |
5 | 1'10.1601 | 0.3120 | 0.0539 | 125.148 |
| 10 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves |
4 | 1'10.1847 | 0.3366 | 0.0246 | 125.104 |
| 11 | 30 |  Takuma Sato |
5 | 1'10.1979 | 0.3498 | 0.0132 | 125.081 |
| 12 | 14 | Tony Kanaan |
5 | 1'10.3592 | 0.5111 | 0.1613 | 124.794 |
Q1G2
| Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | Sébastien Bourdais |
6 | 1'09.5510 | 126.244 | ||
| 2 | 12 | Will Power |
5 | 1'09.8557 | 0.3047 | 0.3047 | 125.693 |
| 3 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud |
5 | 1'09.8982 | 0.3472 | 0.0425 | 125.617 |
| 4 | 14 | Tony Kanaan |
5 | 1'10.0379 | 0.4869 | 0.1397 | 125.366 |
| 5 | 30 | Takuma Sato |
5 | 1'10.0492 | 0.4982 | 0.0113 | 125.346 |
| 6 | 27 | Alexander Rossi |
6 | 1'10.0596 | 0.5086 | 0.0104 | 125.328 |
| 7 | 98 | Marco Andretti |
6 | 1'10.1044 | 0.5534 | 0.0448 | 125.247 |
| 8 | 59 | Max Chilton |
5 | 1'10.2113 | 0.6603 | 0.1069 | 125.057 |
| 9 | 9 |  Scott Dixon |
6 | 1'10.3221 | 0.7711 | 0.1108 | 124.860 |
| 10 | 26 | Zach Veach |
6 | 1'10.3371 | 0.7861 | 0.0150 | 124.833 |
| 11 | 88 |  Gabby Chaves |
5 | 1'10.5066 | 0.9556 | 0.1695 | 124.533 |
| 12 | 32 | Kyle Kaiser |
6 | 1'10.7394 | 1.1884 | 0.2328 | 124.123 |
Q1G1
| Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Robert Wickens |
5 | 1'09.5215 | 126.298 | ||
| 2 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe |
6 | 1'09.8244 | 0.3029 | 0.3029 | 125.750 |
| 3 | 21 | Spencer Pigot |
6 | 1'09.8647 | 0.3432 | 0.0403 | 125.677 |
| 4 | 20 | Jordan King |
3 | 1'09.8735 | 0.3520 | 0.0088 | 125.661 |
| 5 | 1 | Josef Newgarden |
6 | 1'10.0768 | 0.5553 | 0.2033 | 125.297 |
| 6 | 3 | Helio Castroneves |
5 | 1'10.0825 | 0.5610 | 0.0057 | 125.287 |
| 7 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
6 | 1'10.0985 | 0.5770 | 0.0160 | 125.258 |
| 8 | 10 |  Ed Jones |
6 | 1'10.2859 | 0.7644 | 0.1874 | 124.924 |
| 9 | 15 | Graham Rahal |
6 | 1'10.3605 | 0.8390 | 0.0746 | 124.792 |
| 10 | 19 | Zachary Claman De Melo |
6 | 1'10.5064 | 0.9849 | 0.1459 | 124.533 |
| 11 | 4 | Matheus Leist |
6 | 1'10.6425 | 1.1210 | 0.1361 | 124.293 |
| 12 | 23 | Charlie Kimball |
6 | 1'10.7784 | 1.2569 | 0.1359 | 124.055 |
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