Phoenix IndyCar: Bourdais beats Penske aces to pole position
Sebastien Bourdais scored the 34th pole position of his career and Dale Coyne Racing’s first since 2013 after beating compatriot and defending Phoenix winner Simon Pagenaud by 0.4mph.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Due to IndyCar’s oval qualifying order this year being decided by entrant points, rather than blind draw, St. Petersburg winner Bourdais ran 23rd and last and that helped him to narrowly eclipse Pagenaud’s superb early (11th) run. The DCR with Vasser-Sullivan car ran a brilliantly consistent 188.644 and 188.434 to average 188.539mph.
Pagenaud’s 188.148mph was comfortably ahead of Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Will Power who was relieved just to bounce back from a mediocre practice session.
Alexander Rossi was fourth quickest and led Andretti Autosport-Honda’s quartet, with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda duo James Hinhcliffe and rookie Robert Wickens locking out the third row.
Reigning champion Josef Newgarden was seventh ahead of the second Andretti car of Ryan Hunter-Reay, with Tony Kanaan a somewhat subdued ninth after a wiggle on his first flying lap.
Rookie Pietro Fittipaldi completed the top 10 and a great session for Coyne.
Ed Jones was surprisingly the best Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda driver, as Scott Dixon described his disappointing run – eventually resulting in 17th – as “a bit of a mystery.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda’s pairing of Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato were only 12th and 13th despite dominating the preseason test here.
The most disappointing run came from Marco Andretti, running a livery that somewhat emulates the Newman/Haas car of his grandfather Mario who is celebrating 25 years since his final IndyCar win. The third-gen driver will start only 20th, although rookie teammate Zach Veach is 23rd and last.
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