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Sato beats teammate Rahal to pole

Published on 06 Apr 2019 23:15
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By: Fergal Walsh

Takuma Sato has taken his first IndyCar pole position since Pocono in 2015, laying down a 1:08.5934 in the Fast Six.

The Japanese driver leads an all Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing front row, as he got the better of teammate Graham Rahal, who held provisional pole after the first round of laps.

Not a single Team Penske car managed to make it into the Fast Six, the first time that has happened since Long Beach, 2014.

Reigning series champion Scott Dixon ended the session in third place, beating Schmidt Peterson Motorsport's James Hinchcliffe to lead the second row.

Sebastian Bourdais was fifth, while Spencer Pigot setting his fastest lap on the slower, black Firestone tyre to secure sixth for the start of tomorrow's race.

Perhaps surprisingly, there were no red flags deployed during the qualifying sessions, after the practice running was heavily disturbed by the reds throughout the weekend on the build-up to qualifying.

Will Power will start from seventh, having secured pole position at the first two rounds of the season so far. His teammates Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud were surprise exits from Q1.

Alexander Rossi joins Power on row four, ahead of Colton Herta, who won last time out at the Circuit of the Americas. Santino Ferrucci will start from tenth.

Firestone Fast Six

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:08.5934	-
2.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:08.6971	+0.1037
3.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:08.8081	+0.2147
4.	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsport	1:08.8476	+0.2542
5.	Sebastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1:09.0189	+0.4255
6.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:09.6074	+1.0140

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:08.4074	-
2.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:08.5951	+0.1877
3.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:08.6123	+0.2049
4.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:08.6234	+0.2160
5.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:08.6996	+0.2922
6.	Sebastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1:08.7860	+0.3786
7.	Will Power	Team Penske	1:08.8248	+0.4174
8.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1:08.8866	+0.4792
9.	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	1:08.9130	+0.5056
10.	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1:09.0213	+0.6139
11.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1:09.0764	+0.6690
12.	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1:09.2967	+0.8893

Q1 Group 2

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:08.4996
2.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:08.5104	+0.0108
3.	Will Power	Team Penske	1:08.5397	+0.0401
4.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1:08.6872	+0.1876
5.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:08.7171	+0.2175
6.	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:08.7545	+0.2549
7.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1:08.7943	+0.2947
8.	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1:08.8700	+0.3704
9.	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1:08.9011	+0.4015
10.	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:08.9226	+0.4230
11.	Max Chilton	Carlin	1:09.0566	+0.5570
12.	Ben Hanley	DragonSpeed	1:10.4165	+1.9169

Q1 Group 1

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:08.3548	-
2.	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	1:08.3762	+0.0214
3.	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1:08.5672	+0.2124
4.	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1:08.5930	+0.2382
5.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1:08.8013	+0.4465
6.	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1:08.8605	+0.5057
7.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1:08.8950	+0.5402
8.	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:08.9477	+0.5929
9.	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:08.9630	+0.6082
10.	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:09.0327	+0.6779
11.	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:09.0441	+0.6893
12.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1:09.4478	+1.0930