Baltimore IndyCar: Will Power dominates messy qualifying
Will Power was in dominant form during IndyCar qualifying in Baltimore, taking pole position by more than 0.5 seconds
Power delivered a best lap of 1m17.9750s to leave his Penske entry 0.5759s clear of Mike Conway, who got onto the front row with a couple of minutes to spare and promptly crashed at the chicane just after the chequered flag.
The AJ Foyt driver kept his time, but will lose his front-row starting spot due to a 10-place penalty for an unapproved engine change.
Conway's crash was completely in keeping with the character of the session, during which several drivers fell foul of the new chicane.
Graham Rahal's accident at the same spot during the opening phase of the session came before many of his rivals had posted a fast lap, resulting in some surprise early exits.
Chief among them was Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose championship hopes were dealt a huge blow when he was eliminated in segment one, along with the likes of Takuma Sato and Rubens Barrichello.
That also created opportunities for some unexpected progressions, including Ed Carpenter - who made it into the second phase of qualifying for the first time this year - and Bruno Junqueira, who is standing in for the injured Josef Newgarden at Sarah Fisher Hartman.
The second qualifying group's session was only marginally less chaotic, with Simon Pagenaud adding his name to the chicane's list of victims when he tagged the wall and broke his right-rear suspension. He was quick enough to go through to the second phase, but his car was too damaged for him to participate.
The other driver to strike trouble at the new Turn 13 was Justin Wilson, who was on target to go through to the Fast Six before he, too, got out of shape at the chicane and thumped the barriers.
JR Hildebrand was unable to take part in the session due to accident damage from his crash during morning practice.
Meanwhile, four other drivers are currently poised to join Conway in being issued 10-place penalties for unapproved engine changes or exceeding their engine allocation. Sato, Simona de Silvestro, Junqueira and Charlie Kimball all stand to have 10 places added to their qualifying positions.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Will Power Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.9750s 2. Mike Conway Foyt Dallara-Honda 1m18.5509s + 0.5759s 3. Scott Dixon Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m18.6017s + 0.6267s 4. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon Dallara-Chevy 1m18.8500s + 0.8750s 5. Dario Franchitti Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m18.9398s + 0.9648s 6. James Hinchcliffe Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m19.3101s + 1.3351s 7. Charlie Kimball Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m19.3347s Round 2 8. Tony Kanaan KV Dallara-Chevy 1m19.6788s Round 2 9. Justin Wilson Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m20.3559s Round 2 10. Bruno Junqueira Fisher Dallara-Honda 1m20.3826s Round 2 11. Ed Carpenter Carpenter Dallara-Chevy 1m20.4968s Round 2 12. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Dallara-Honda Round 2 13. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m21.7113s Group 1 14. Ryan Briscoe Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m18.8872s Group 2 15. Alex Tagliani Herta Dallara-Honda 1m22.2657s Group 1 16. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m18.9533s Group 2 17. Rubens Barrichello KV Dallara-Chevy 1m22.7851s Group 1 18. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy 1m19.3365s Group 2 19. Takuma Sato Rahal Dallara-Honda 1m24.5395s Group 1 20. Marco Andretti Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m19.4192s Group 2 21. Simona de Silvestro HVM Dallara-Lotus 1m27.2226s Group 1 22. James Jakes Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m19.5496s Group 2 23. Graham Rahal Ganassi Dallara-Honda Group 1 24. EJ Viso KV Dallara-Chevy 1m19.8631s Group 2 25. JR Hildebrand Panther Dallara-Chevy Group 2
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