Barber IndyCar: O’Ward sees off Rossi to secure pole position
Pato O’Ward has secured his second IndyCar career pole position, beating Alexander Rossi by less than one-tenth of a second at the 2021 opener at Barber.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
The Arrow McLaren SP driver, who is embarking on only his second full season in IndyCar, produced a new track record of 1m05.847s to edge out Rossi of Andretti Autosport by just 0.069s.
In the frantic fast six final qualifying stage, fellow youngster Alex Palou narrowly missed out on the front row in his first qualifying for Chip Ganassi Racing and had to settle for third, while four-time Barber polesitter Will Power was the top Team Penske driver in fourth place.
Six-time and reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, who is seeking his first Barber win, will line up in fifth, alongside team-mate Marcus Ericsson who made it three Ganassi cars in the top six.
Romain Grosjean narrowly missed out on the pole position shootout by being shuffled out in the second session, with the former Formula 1 driver set to start his IndyCar debut from seventh position for Dale Coyne Racing.
Grosjean, who will make his first race start since his fiery crash at last year’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix in which he suffered burns to his hands, initially laid down the marker to beat in the penultimate qualifying session, but was quickly pushed aside by O’Ward and Palou.
Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Ericsson and Dixon underlined just how strong the Chip Ganassi Racing package looks to be this year by comfortably making it into the top six shootout, as Power’s late lap prevented Grosjean from making it into the final qualifying stage on debut.
Three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden also missed out on the top six shootout for Team Penske, who starts the 2021 opener from eighth place.
Andretti’s Colton Herta and Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing) rounded out the top 10, while IndyCar debutant Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) also impressed to qualify 12th just behind Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing.
The final IndyCar debutant, NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson, avoided qualifying last by beating Dalton Kellett (AJ Foyt) with the Chip Ganassi Racing driver lining up in 22nd place.
IndyCar Barber - Qualifying Results - Q3
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Patricio O'Ward |
Arrow McLaren SP | 1'05.847 | |
| 2 |  Alexander Rossi |
Andretti Autosport |
1'05.917 | 0.069 |
| 3 |  Alex Palou |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'06.053 | 0.205 |
| 4 |  Will Power |
Team Penske |
1'06.118 | 0.270 |
| 5 |  Scott Dixon |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'06.397 | 0.549 |
| 6 |  Marcus Ericsson |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'06.410 | 0.562 |
| View full results | ||||
Q2
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patricio O'Ward |
Arrow McLaren SP | 1'05.501 | |
| 2 | Will Power |
Team Penske |
1'05.522 | 0.020 |
| 3 | Alex Palou |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'05.632 | 0.130 |
| 4 | Marcus Ericsson |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'05.661 | 0.159 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'05.686 | 0.184 |
| 6 | Alexander Rossi |
Andretti Autosport |
1'05.695 | 0.193 |
| 7 |  Romain Grosjean |
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 1'05.764 | 0.262 |
| 8 | Josef Newgarden |
Team Penske |
1'05.790 | 0.288 |
| 9 | Colton Herta |
Andretti Autosport |
1'05.795 | 0.293 |
| 10 | Conor Daly |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
1'05.911 | 0.409 |
| 11 |  Jack Harvey |
Meyer Shank Racing |
1'05.963 | 0.461 |
| 12 | Scott McLaughlin |
Team Penske |
1'06.722 | 1.220 |
| View full results | ||||
Q1 G2
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patricio O'Ward |
Arrow McLaren SP | 1'06.069 | |
| 2 | Romain Grosjean |
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 1'06.070 | 0.001 |
| 3 | Conor Daly |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
1'06.103 | 0.033 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi |
Andretti Autosport |
1'06.234 | 0.164 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'06.377 | 0.307 |
| 6 | Colton Herta |
Andretti Autosport |
1'06.428 | 0.358 |
| 7 |  Rinus van Kalmthout |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
1'06.477 | 0.407 |
| 8 | Sébastien Bourdais |
A.J. Foyt Enterprises |
1'06.503 | 0.433 |
| 9 | Graham Rahal |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
1'06.848 | 0.779 |
| 10 | Max Chilton |
Carlin |
1'07.002 | 0.932 |
| 11 | Felix Rosenqvist |
Arrow McLaren SP | 1'07.025 | 0.955 |
| 12 |  James Hinchcliffe |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | 11'16.723 | 10'10.653 |
| View full results | ||||
Q1 G1
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Palou |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'05.903 | |
| 2 | Will Power |
Team Penske |
1'05.919 | 0.015 |
| 3 | Josef Newgarden |
Team Penske |
1'06.388 | 0.484 |
| 4 | Scott McLaughlin |
Team Penske |
1'06.455 | 0.552 |
| 5 | Marcus Ericsson |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'06.499 | 0.596 |
| 6 | Jack Harvey |
Meyer Shank Racing |
1'06.523 | 0.620 |
| 7 |  Ed Jones |
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 1'06.557 | 0.654 |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud |
Team Penske |
1'06.648 | 0.744 |
| 9 | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
Andretti Autosport |
1'06.851 | 0.948 |
| 10 |  Takuma Sato |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
1'07.102 | 1.199 |
| 11 | Jimmie Johnson |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
1'07.709 | 1.806 |
| 12 | Dalton Kellett |
A.J. Foyt Enterprises |
1'07.810 | 1.906 |
| View full results | ||||
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