Houston IndyCar: Scott Dixon given pole after qualifying rain-out
Bad weather forced the qualifying session for the second race of IndyCar's Houston double-header to be abandoned
Heavy rain fell immediately before the session was scheduled to start. Series officials carried out several track inspections as the rain eased off, but the large amounts of standing water around the circuit finally forced the session to be called off.
Consequently, the grid for Sunday's race will be determined by entrant points, meaning that Saturday race-winner Scott Dixon will start from pole position for Ganassi, although he will not earn the usual bonus point.
"I think we probably would have liked to qualify," he said. "It seems like Helio [Castroneves] is struggling a little bit more this weekend, so if we could have had that bit of separation on the grid like yesterday, it would have been nice.
"I think if we were at a typical road course it wouldn't have been as much of an issue with this amount of rain, but as everyone knows, street courses tend to puddle a lot.
"Hopefully it clears and makes for a good day's racing. It's a lot cooler [than yesterday], and I'm not sure the start will be completely dry, but it should be pretty close, hopefully."
Current drivers' championship leader Castroneves was docked 15 entrant points at Texas Motor Speedway in June after a post-race inspection determined that his Penske car's underwing did not comply with the rules.
The Brazilian will start alongside his title rival on the front row.
The weather conditions have been forecast to improve in time for this afternoon's race.
Pos Driver Team/Engine 1. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Honda 2. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 3. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 4. Marco Andretti Andretti/Chevy 5. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Chevy 6. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 7. Dario Franchitti Ganassi/Honda 8. Will Power Penske/Chevy 9. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Chevy 10. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Honda 11. Tony Kanaan KV/Chevy 12. EJ Viso Andretti/Chevy 13. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon/Chevy 14. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 15. Simona de Silvestro KV/Chevy 16. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 17. Mike Conway Coyne/Honda 18. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 19. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 20. James Jakes Rahal/Honda 21. Oriol Servia Panther/Chevy 22. Tristan Vautier Schmidt/Honda 23. Luca Filippi Herta/Honda 24. Sebastian Saavedra Dragon/Chevy All drivers use Dallara DW12 chassis
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