IndyCar Detroit: Newgarden on pole for final Belle Isle race

Team Penske's Newgarden delivered a 1m15.215s lap, an average of 112.477s, to go fastest by 0.133s and claim his 16^th pole.

Heading into the Firestone Fast Six on used reds, Helio Castroneves was the first driver to throw down a fast lap in Q3, a 1m15.453s tour of the bumpy 2.35-mile, 14-turn course.

That survived the first assaults from Newgarden and rookie David Malukas in the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda, before Takuma Sato in the second Dale Coyne Racing with RWR car moved to the top with a 1m15.349s.

Soon after, Newgarden delivered his pole-stealing lap to top the timesheet, with Sato lining up second and Simon Pagenaud of Meyer Shank Racing in third.

Castroneves settled for fourth, with Arrow McLaren SP's Pato O'Ward in fifth and rookie David Malukas in sixth.

The fastest time in Q1's Group 1 was set by Castroneves, with a a 1m15.737s, ahead of Ericsson, O’Ward and Pagenaud. 

Devlin DeFrancesco went straight out on alternate tyres, and on his second lap he produced a 1m17.019s, but the best of the drivers on primary tyres were able to able to eclipse him.

Takuma Sato, Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Another driver on alternates, Christian Lundgaard then went to the top of the times for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda and delivered a 1m16.306s, but Scott McLaughlin was only two-tenths away in his Team Penske-Chevrolet.

Castroneves and O’Ward then improved on their second flying laps and Helio got down to 1m15.436s.

Conor Daly just missed out by 0.0087s, as did Friday pacesetter Kyle Kirkwood who had to serve a drive-through for a pit speed violation.

Malukas topped the Group 2 times on primaries, 1m16.3251s, ahead of the Andretti Autosport pair of Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta, followed by Scott Dixon (Ganassi), Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Will Power (Team Penske).

Alex Palou was the first major runner to switch to alternate tyres, but his 1m15.950s was swiftly pushed down by Felix Rosenqvist, Rossi, Malukas, VeeKay, before Dixon produced a 1m15.331s.

Josef Newgarden then found a 1m15.226s, but that was beaten by Malukas who produced the first 74sec lap of the weekend, a 74.883s. Rossi and Herta also improved to also demote Newgarden, but he, Dixon and Sato clung on to move on into Q2.

Surprise eliminations at this stage were VeeKay, Power, and defending champion Palou. Rosenqvist was sent out of pitlane into the path of Jimmie Johnson, lost his best laps for qualifying interference and will start on the back row.

Simon Pagenaud, Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Heading into Q2, Simon Pagenaud set a 1m15.443s on primary tyres, while Newgarden landed a 1m15.509s with his first flyer on fresh reds and 15.0289 on his second.

However, this was swiftly eclipsed by rookie Malukas with a 1m14.8s, the same as he produced in Q1, before O’Ward sprung himself to the top with a 1m14.668s.

Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi were on their final flying laps, when Romain Grosjean banged the wall at Turn 11, appeared to bend suspension, and then spun hard into the wall at Turn 12.

That brought out the red flag, preventing Dixon and Rossi from getting a chance to advance, so Newgarden could breathe a sigh of relief as he was through to the final six.

Marcus Ericsson was unhappy with teammate Dixon backing up toward him trying to find a gap, for his flyer, but it was a similar incident to that seen throughout the field, throughout the weekend.

Firestone Fast Six results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'15.215
2	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	1'15.349	0.133	0.133
3	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	1'15.395	0.179	0.046
4	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	1'15.453	0.238	0.058
5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'16.330	1.114	0.876
6	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	1'16.610	1.395	0.280
View full results

Q2 results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'14.668
2	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	1'14.825	0.157	0.157
3	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	1'14.859	0.191	0.034
4	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	1'14.917	0.249	0.057
5	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	1'14.936	0.268	0.019
6	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'15.028	0.360	0.092
7	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	1'15.104	0.436	0.075
8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'15.227	0.559	0.123
9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'15.405	0.737	0.177
10	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	1'15.867	1.198	0.461
11	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'16.217	1.549	0.350
12	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	1'16.974	2.305	0.756
View full results

Q1 Group 1 results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	1'15.436
2	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'15.597	0.160	0.160
3	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'15.615	0.179	0.018
4	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	1'15.676	0.239	0.060
5	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	1'15.846	0.409	0.169
6	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	1'16.006	0.570	0.160
7	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'16.015	0.578	0.008
8	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'16.125	0.688	0.110
9	Santino Ferrucci	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1'16.139	0.702	0.013
10	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'16.306	0.870	0.167
11	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	1'16.337	0.900	0.030
12	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'16.426	0.989	0.089
13	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
View full results

Q1 Group 2 results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Interval
1	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	1'14.883
2	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'15.028	0.145	0.145
3	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	1'15.200	0.317	0.171
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'15.226	0.342	0.025
5	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'15.330	0.447	0.104
6	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	1'15.391	0.507	0.060
7	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'15.548	0.664	0.157
8	Will Power	Team Penske	1'15.573	0.689	0.024
9	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'15.612	0.728	0.039
10	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'16.834	1.951	1.222
11	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'17.549	2.666	0.715
12	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'18.365	3.482	0.815
13	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	1'18.629	3.745	0.263
View full results