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<strong>Qualifying</strong>: Power leaves it late to take pole at COTA

Qualifying: Power leaves it late to take pole at COTA

Published on 23 Mar 2019 21:15
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By: Fergal Walsh

Will Power made it two pole positions from two at the Circuit of the Americas, as he took pole position for tomorrow's IndyCar Classic.

The Australian bagged his 56th career pole, beating Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi to the top spot. Early on in the Fast Six session, it looked as though Colton Herta was on his way to his maiden pole.

The young American was looking to impress after missing out on the Fast Six in St. Petersburg following a penalty for impeding. Herta was pipped towards the end of the session and will line up in fourth place on Sunday.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will line-up alongside the 19-year-old on the second row. It was an all Chip Ganassi Racing third row, as Felix Rosenqvist once again got the better of reigning champion Scott Dixon.

POS.	Driver	Team	Lap	Gap
1.	Will Power	Team Penske	1:46.0177	-
2.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1:46.1761	+ 0.1584
3.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1:46.3228	+ 0.3051
4.	Colton Herta	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	1:46.3594	+ 0.3417
5.	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:46.5680	+ 0.5503
6.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:46.9375	+ 0.9198

Championship leader Josef Newgarden found himself being bumped from the top six, and he will start the race from seventh. Rookie Patricio O'Ward, who took part in his first qualifying session for Carlin, will start alongside him.

Zach Veach ended the session in eighth place, ahead of Graham Rahal. Santino Ferrucci gambled on the Firestone reds early on in the hope of a red flag but is the lead Dale Coyne Racing car after his teammate Sebastian Bourdais failed to progress from his group after getting caught out by a red flag.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Lap	Gap
7.	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1:46.3438	+ 0.8896
8.	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1:46.3807	+ 0.9265
9.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1:46.5421	+ 1.0879
10.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:46.9676	+ 1.5134
11.	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1:47.3956	+ 1.9414
12.	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:48.0634	+ 2.6092

There were a number of big name exits from the group qualifying sessions. As well as Bourdais, his compatriot Simon Pagenaud failed to progress into the top 12 shootout.

The two Schmidt Peterson cars of James Hinchcliffe and Marcus Ericsson were a part of different groups, but both failed to move beyond the group qualifying stage.

Jack Harvey and Tony Kanaan produced red flags in their respected groups with both going off at Turn 19, which hampered the final efforts of some of their rivals.

GROUP 1 DROPOUTS

7.	Max Chilton	Carlin	1:46.8253	+ 0.6177
8.	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:46.8670	+ 0.6594
9.	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1:47.0702	+ 0.8626
10.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:48.4895	+ 2.2819
11.	Kyle Kaiser	Juncos Racing	1:48.6343	+ 2.4267
12.	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1:49.1795	+ 2.9719

GROUP 2 DROPOUTS

7.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:47.7109	+ 1.4116
8.	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:48.4259	+ 2.1266
9.	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:48.4523	+ 2.1530
10.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1:48.6521	+ 2.3528
11.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1:48.9030	+ 2.6037
12.	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:50.0743	+ 3.7750

Photos IndyCar Circuit of the Americas 2019

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IndyCar News Marcus Ericsson Alexander Rossi Santino Ferrucci Max Chilton Takuma Sato Sébastien Bourdais Michael Andretti Alan Jones Bobby Rahal Ronnie Peterson Paddy Driver Rodger Ward Felix Rosenqvist Roger Penske Peter Ryan André Simon