IndyCar Sonoma: Pagenaud takes pole position for title decider
Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud stormed to pole position for the IndyCar season finale at Sonoma
The Frenchman faced stiff competition from team-mates Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya, but managed to come out on top by 0.1569 seconds.
Pagenaud's title rival, Will Power, finished fourth to make it an all-Penske top four.
Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay were the quickest of the Honda-powered cars, and will line up together on the third row for the double points race on Sunday, thanks to an impressive Fast 12 performance.
The Fast 12 portion of qualifying produced a title battle, with reigning champion Scott Dixon finishing outside of the top six by 0.0032s, ahead of Alexander Rossi, Sebastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden.
Chip Ganassi Racing's Tony Kanaan missed out on the second part of qualifying by 0.0990s and will start on the seventh row.
Practice three pacesetter Marco Andretti also narrowly missed out on a Fast 12 spot, just 0.0588s shy of the time needed to progress.
He joins Kanaan on row seven for the season finale.
QUALIFYING RESULT:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.2565s | - |
| 2 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.4134s | 0.1569s |
| 3 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.5400s | 0.2835s |
| 4 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.6659s | 0.4094s |
| 5 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.7149s | 0.4584s |
| 6 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.9132s | 0.6567s |
| 7 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.5700s | - |
| 8 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.5840s | - |
| 9 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.6115s | - |
| 10 | Josef Newgarden | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.8142s | - |
| 11 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.8909s | - |
| 12 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.9627s | - |
| 13 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.9481s | - |
| 14 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.9288s | - |
| 15 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.9661s | - |
| 16 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m17.0314s | - |
| 17 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m17.0823s | - |
| 18 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m17.1310s | - |
| 19 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m17.3052s | - |
| 20 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m17.1926s | - |
| 21 | Conor Daly | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m17.6771s | - |
| 22 | R.C. Enerson | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m17.3264s | - |
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