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Phoenix IndyCar: Helio Castroneves claims pole as Penske dominates

Helio Castroneves took pole position at Phoenix, continuing Penske's clean sweep of IndyCar poles in 2017

Castroneves pumped in a 194.905mph two-lap average in the night-time session under floodlights, to beat his Penske team-mate Will Power, whose average was 194.017mph.

Penske dominated the session, taking four of the first five starting slots.

The result also means Castroneves has claimed pole for both Phoenix races since the track rejoined the calendar after an 11-year absence last season.

Power topped the times early on, having been selected to go second in the running order, though the Australian admitted that running so early was a disadvantage.

Penske's dominance only was broken by Ed Carpenter Racing's JR Hildebrand, who will start third as he returns to action after missing the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park due to the hand injury he sustained in a last-lap collision with Mikhail Aleshin in Long Beach.

The other two Penske drivers were next up, Josef Newgarden qualifying fourth and Simon Pagenaud fifth.

Ganassi's Tony Kanaan, the last to run in the session, was sixth quickest, also making him the top Honda runner.

He was followed by Aleshin in seventh, Scott Dixon in eighth and Marco Andretti in ninth.

Points leader Sebastien Bourdais was 10th quickest for Dale Coyne Racing.

QUALIFYING RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Speed
1 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 194.905
2 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 194.017
3 J.R. Hildebrand Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 193.912
4 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 193.676
5 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 193.414
6 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 192.539
7 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 192.327
8 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 192.050
9 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 191.387
10 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 191.349
11 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 191.194
12 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 190.799
13 Max Chilton Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 190.768
14 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 190.565
15 Alexander Rossi Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 190.405
16 Ed Jones Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 190.029
17 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 189.786
18 Takuma Sato Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 189.779
19 Carlos Munoz AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 189.301
20 Conor Daly AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 188.536
21 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 186.360

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