Team Penske’s Will Power grabbed pole for Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a time of 1:10.1779 and an average speed of 125.116 mph. Power was able to get his car hooked up in the high temperatures, which degraded the tires quickly and only gave the drivers a couple chances to put in a quick lap.
Power is one of only two winners of the GMR Grand prix, having taken victory in three of the six races held. Each time Power has earned pole, he’s converted that position into a win.
Today’s pole-winning time was measurably slower than last year’s pole time of 1:08.3014. This was partially due to the added weight of the Aeroscreen, but also due to a lack of grip on account of the high temperatures.
Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing put in an impressive lap to start beside Power on the front row. The British driver only missed pole by 0.187 seconds and generally does well on this track, finishing third in both qualifying and the race in 2019.
Colton Herta followed up a good qualifying performance in 2019 with a third place run today. He will look to have better luck in the race than he did last year, when he finished 23rd after crashing out.
Graham Rahal will start on the second row, just ahead of rookie Oliver Askew. The 2019 Indy Lights champion outpaced the other rookies in the field and looked for a while like he could grab a front row spot, but will take solace in a solid starting position.
Josef Newgarden, the pole sitter at Texas Motor Speedway four weeks ago, was not able to lay down a quick lap in the Fast Six qualifying session, overshooting a corner and subsequently running out of time. He will look to notch up a solid finish from the third row.
The dominant winner from the season’s first race at Texas Motor Speedway Scott Dixon was narrowly knocked out in the second round of qualifying, missing out on the Fast Six session by 0.057 seconds and securing the seventh starting position.
Last year’s pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist managed to make it to the second round and qualified ninth for this weekend’s race.
Defending GMR Grand Prix winner Simon Pagenaud had a qualifying session to forget, battling severe understeer and getting knocked out in the first round. If the Frenchman wants to win a record fourth race on the road course, he’ll need to come from behind tomorrow.
The 80-lap GMR Grand prix takes place tomorrow at 12:00 PM EDT (17:00 BST) and will be shown on local NBC stations in the US and Sky Sports F1 in the UK.
| # | Driver | Time | Speed | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Power | 01:10.1779 | 125.116 | –.—- |
| 2 | Jack Harvey | 01:10.3653 | 124.783 | 0.1874 |
| 3 | Colton Herta | 01:10.5197 | 124.51 | 0.1544 |
| 4 | Graham Rahal | 01:10.5844 | 124.396 | 0.0647 |
| 5 | Oliver Askew | 01:10.8404 | 123.946 | 0.256 |
| 6 | Josef Newgarden | No Time | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Scott Dixon | 01:10.1990 | 125.079 | 0.057 |
| 8 | Conor Daly | 01:10.2169 | 125.047 | 0.0179 |
| 9 | Felix Rosenqvist | 01:10.2310 | 125.022 | 0.0141 |
| 10 | Max Chilton | 01:10.3055 | 124.889 | 0.0745 |
| 11 | Alexander Rossi | 01:10.3426 | 124.823 | 0.0371 |
| 12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 01:10.5764 | 124.41 | 0.2338 |
| 13 | Pato O’Ward | 01:10.7333 | 124.134 | 0.1145 |
| 14 | Marcus Ericsson | 01:10.6287 | 124.318 | 0.034 |
| 15 | Santino Ferrucci | 01:10.7902 | 124.034 | 0.0569 |
| 16 | Spencer Pigot | 01:10.6350 | 124.307 | 0.0063 |
| 17 | Takuma Sato | 01:10.8853 | 123.868 | 0.0951 |
| 18 | Rinus VeeKay | 01:10.7070 | 124.18 | 0.072 |
| 19 | James Hinchcliffe | 01:11.1478 | 123.411 | 0.2625 |
| 20 | Simon Pagenaud | 01:10.7438 | 124.115 | 0.0368 |
| 21 | Alex Palou | 01:11.1815 | 123.352 | 0.0337 |
| 22 | Zach Veach | 01:11.2762 | 123.188 | 0.5324 |
| 23 | Sage Karam | 01:11.7774 | 122.328 | 0.5959 |
| 24 | Charlie Kimball | 01:11.4026 | 122.97 | 0.1264 |
| 25 | Marco Andretti | 01:12.0513 | 121.863 | 0.2739 |
| 26 | Dalton Kellett | 01:11.5876 | 122.653 | 0.185 |
