Detroit IndyCar: O’Ward beats Rossi and Grosjean for opening race pole

The Detroit Grand Prix traditionally has a different qualifying system than the other road and street courses, but this year it has been brought much closer in line with the regular system, with the 25 cars divided into groups of 12 and 13 in qualifying, with the top six from each going into a top 12 fight for pole. The difference to regular qualifying for road and street circuits was that there was no final session shootout for pole position between the top six drivers.

As the drivers discovered yesterday, the softer red-walled Firestone tyre compounds were taking a long time to get up to operating temperature around the 2.35-mile course, meaning many drivers cut short their ‘banker’ laps on the primary compound to work on the reds for longer.

That didn’t explain Andretti Autosport’s two-time Detroit polesitter Rossi laying down a startling 1m15.8507s in Group 1 to beat the rest of his rivals field – led by Dale Coyne Racing with RWR’s Grosjean – by an incredible 0.82s. But it did explain why Will Power only scraped through with his second flyer on reds.

The biggest surprise was Chip Ganassi Racing’s championship leader Alex Palou finishing 11th in the first group of qualifying. His misery was multiplied, knowing that he was being penalised a further six places for his early engine change at the Indy 500.

Rossi’s lap time was put in perspective when the second group ran, as Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden beat it, while Colton Herta (Andretti) and Ed Jones (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan) matched it.

Ganassi’s Jimmie Johnson made a notable stride overnight, knocking more than two seconds off his deficit to the fastest in his session, to finish up 3.2s down.

With Newgarden, Scott Dixon and O’Ward heading straight out on softer tyres in the top 12 shootout, the times tumbled, with Grosjean, O’Ward, Rossi and Jones all taking turns at the top, until the Arrow McLaren SP driver nailed his second pole of the season with a scintillating 1m15.5776s.

Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

That was a mere 0.08s faster than Rossi, while Grosjean was by far the quickest rookie in third place for Dale Coyne Racing, ahead of Jones.

Josef Newgarden was top Penske driver in fifth, although Power was tracking to be 0.18s faster than polesitter O’Ward, but clipped a wall with his left-rear wheel and at the next corner, a right-hander, the rears locked and he grazed a tyre wall, ending his bid with seventh place, behind Andretti's Colton Herta.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won here in 2018, took eighth place for Andretti, half a second ahead of Team Penske's Pagenaud, while former Detroit winners Sebastien Bourdais (AJ Foyt) and Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) beat Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing), who has never raced here before.

The first race of the Detroit double-header begins at 2pm local time (7pm BST) on Saturday.

Detroit IndyCar qualifying one results:

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	5	Pato O'Ward	1:15.5776	1:15.5776	0.000	5	6	1:15.9660	2		4	111.938	10:28.5995	Chevy	A	4	Arrow McLaren SP
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1:15.6584	0.0808	0.0808	5	6	1:17.2442	3		1	111.818	10:55.5678	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport
3	51	Romain Grosjean	1:15.7433	0.1657	0.0849	5	7	1:16.4667	4		2	111.693	11:06.2424	Honda	A	22	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
4	18	Ed Jones	1:15.8119	0.2343	0.0686	5	6	1:22.1732	3		9	111.592	10:05.2832	Honda	A	12	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
5	2	Josef Newgarden	1:15.8697	0.2921	0.0578	5	6	1:20.2025	3		7	111.507	9:57.0789	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
6	26	Colton Herta	1:16.0832	0.5056	0.2135	4	6	1:19.6969	3		8	111.194	10:51.1165	Honda	A	16	Andretti Autosport
7	12	Will Power	1:16.0877	0.5101	0.0045	5	6	1:27.6789	3		6	111.187	10:48.3350	Chevy	A	9	Team Penske
8	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:16.1293	0.5517	0.0416	5	6	1:22.1082	3		10	111.127	10:27.5691	Honda	A	18	Andretti Autosport
9	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:16.6606	1.0830	0.5313	5	6	1:17.1011	3		5	110.357	10:43.8487	Chevy	A	15	Team Penske
10	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1:17.4333	1.8557	0.7727	4	5	1:29.6434	3		11	109.255	10:01.3971	Chevy	A	10	AJ Foyt Enterprises
11	9	Scott Dixon	1:17.8680	2.2904	0.4347	4	5	1:23.6258	2		12	108.645	9:04.9102	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:17.8776	2.3000	0.0096	2	6	1:19.4432	3		3	108.632	9:55.0470	Chevy	A	14	Ed Carpenter Racing

Segment 1, Group 2

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	1:15.6606	1:15.6606	0.000	6	6	1:15.6606	3		4	111.815	9:55.3927	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
2	26	Colton Herta	1:15.8439	0.1833	0.1833	6	6	1:15.8439	3		3	111.545	10:21.6789	Honda	A	16	Andretti Autosport
3	18	Ed Jones	1:15.8696	0.2090	0.0257	5	6	1:21.8522	3		10	111.507	10:19.8093	Honda	A	12	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
4	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:16.1328	0.4722	0.2632	5	6	1:16.8822	3		5	111.122	10:42.2878	Honda	A	18	Andretti Autosport
5	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1:16.1339	0.4733	0.0011	6	6	1:16.1339	3		1	111.120	10:53.3435	Chevy	A	10	AJ Foyt Enterprises
6	9	Scott Dixon	1:16.3151	0.6545	0.1812	6	6	1:16.3151	3		2	110.856	10:06.9233	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:16.4620	0.8014	0.1469	6	6	1:16.4620	2		7	110.643	10:47.8395	Chevy	A	5	Arrow McLaren SP
8	30	Takuma Sato	1:16.4713	0.8107	0.0093	6	6	1:16.4713	3		6	110.630	10:37.5001	Honda	A	20	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9	59	Max Chilton	1:16.6093	0.9487	0.1380	6	6	1:16.6093	3		9	110.430	10:59.4582	Chevy	A	23	Carlin
10	15	Graham Rahal	1:16.6694	1.0088	0.0601	6	6	1:16.6694	3		8	110.344	10:34.7226	Honda	A	11	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
11	45	Santino Ferrucci	1:16.6880	1.0274	0.0186	2	6	1:22.3022	0		11	110.317	10:32.8580	Honda	A	34	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:17.5569	1.8963	0.8689	6	6	1:17.5569	3		12	109.081	10:14.5668	Chevy	A	2	Team Penske

Segment 1, Group 1

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	27	Alexander Rossi	1:15.8507	1:15.8507	0.000	5	5	1:15.8507	3		3	111.535	9:44.6025	Honda	A	101	Andretti Autosport
2	51	Romain Grosjean	1:16.6715	0.8208	0.8208	6	7	1:23.4482	4		7	110.341	11:13.7676	Honda	A	81	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
3	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:16.8172	0.9665	0.1457	5	6	1:23.5530	4		5	110.132	10:05.2556	Chevy	A	191	Ed Carpenter Racing
4	5	Pato O'Ward	1:16.8406	0.9899	0.0234	6	6	1:16.8406	2		2	110.098	10:53.8750	Chevy	A	211	Arrow McLaren SP
5	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:16.9636	1.1129	0.1230	4	6	1:24.2476	1		10	109.922	10:40.2294	Chevy	A	201	Team Penske
6	12	Will Power	1:17.0343	1.1836	0.0707	6	6	1:17.0343	3		1	109.821	10:35.6645	Chevy	A	128	Team Penske
7	29	James Hinchcliffe	1:17.0691	1.2184	0.0348	3	5	1:17.3841	0		6	109.772	10:25.5940	Honda	A	74	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
8	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:17.1579	1.3072	0.0888	5	5	1:17.1579	2		4	109.645	10:03.3293	Honda	A	138	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	20	Conor Daly	1:17.2904	1.4397	0.1325	5	6	1:17.7941	4		9	109.457	10:50.8945	Chevy	A	85	Ed Carpenter Racing
10	60	Jack Harvey	1:17.4180	1.5673	0.1276	5	6	1:18.3300	3		11	109.277	10:58.5183	Honda	A	121	Meyer Shank Racing
11	10	Alex Palou	1:17.5190	1.6683	0.1010	6	6	1:17.5190	3		8	109.135	10:08.1970	Honda	A	248	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:19.0944	3.2437	1.5754	6	6	1:19.0944	0		13	106.961	10:15.3755	Honda	A	25	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	4	Dalton Kellett	1:19.4821	3.6314	0.3877	2	6	3:15.9755	4		12	106.439	13:14.0132	Chevy	A	62	AJ Foyt Enterprises