Road America IndyCar: Penske's Will Power on pole at Elkhart Lake
Penske driver Will Power secured pole position for Sunday's IndyCar race at Road America, top-level US single-seater racing's return to the famous Wisconsin circuit after a nine-year absence
The Australian set his best time of 1m42.211 late in the eight-minute 'Fast Six' pole shootout to move up to first place.
It is Power's first pole since the 2016 season opener in St Petersburg, when he failed to start due to a contentious concussion diagnosis.
Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was 0.165 seconds back, ahead of team-mate and practice three pacesetter Tony Kanaan.
Championship leader Simon Pagenaud was fourth in the final segment of qualifying at the wheel of his Chevrolet-powered Dallara.
Fellow Penske driver Helio Castroneves qualified fifth, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal ending the session sixth. He was the only one of the top six to run on the harder black Firestone tyres.
Max Chilton, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Conor Daly were best of those eliminated in the 12-minute second session of qualifying, just missing out on spots in the top six.
Carlos Munoz, who lost out on track time in final practice due to an engine problem, will complete the top 10 on the grid for Sunday's race. Charlie Kimball and Sebastien Bourdais were next up.
Mikhail Aleshin will start 13th, having been the first to drop out in group one. Juan Pablo Montoya just missed out on progressing in group two and will line up alongside Aleshin on row seven.
The next row on the grid will feature Takuma Sato and Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi, with Spencer Pigot and Jack Hawksworth behind them.
Gabby Chaves was second slowest in group one and will start 19th, alongside Josef Newgarden.
The Ed Carpenter Racing driver spun and brought out the red flags at the end of the second session, with his two best laptimes being deleted.
Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe, who had his two quickest times deleted due to blocking, will start the ninth round of the 2016 IndyCar season from last place.
STARTING GRID
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m42.2105s | - |
2 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m42.3759s | 0.1654s |
3 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m42.7279s | 0.5174s |
4 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m42.8573s | 0.6468s |
5 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m42.9449s | 0.7344s |
6 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.7782s | 1.5677s |
7 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m42.7519s | - |
8 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m42.8318s | - |
9 | Conor Daly | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.1073s | - |
10 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.2001s | - |
11 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m43.2649s | - |
12 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m43.3291s | - |
13 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.4024s | - |
14 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m44.3570s | - |
15 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.5357s | - |
16 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1m45.0840s | - |
17 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m43.6432s | - |
18 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m45.5110s | - |
19 | Gabby Chaves | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.6672s | - |
20 | Josef Newgarden | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 4m19.1862s | - |
21 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.7289s | - |
22 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 4m29.0408s | - |
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