The devastatingly-tricky Detroit street course hosted an afternoon qualifying session for IndyCar on Saturday, and it was Alex Palou that was able to go the fastest.
The Spaniard danced his way around the 9 turns and set a quick lap of 1:01:8692 on the Firestone green Guayule tires.
It is Palou’s third career pole, and his second consecutive pole after taking the top spot for the Indy 500 just a couple weeks ago.
READ MORE: Indy Detroit GP – Full Qualifying Results
Scott McLaughlin put up a good fight and looked like he might be able to take the top spot for himself, but he came up just short when the checkered flag waved.
Romain Grosjean and Scott Dixon earned the third and fourth places respectively, and will start Sunday’s race on the second row.
Coming hot off his Indy 500 win, Josef Newgarden set the fifth fastest time in the final qualifying session. He will start alongside Marcus Ericsson, who is the third Chip Ganassi driver in the top six.
Will Power just missed out on the Fast 6, and will start alongside Simon Pagenaud on the fourth row on Sunday.
Drivers finally got some clear track space for qualifying, which had been a problem during practice on account of the short 1.7-mile layout.
Unlike practice, there weren’t any stoppages, but drivers did try to stick with the corners even when they overcooked the braking zone just a bit. That resulted in a few damaged race cars throughout the sessions.
Kyle Kirkwood was a driver with one such damaged car, as he was knocked out of the second session after touching the dangerous wall at the end of turn 7.
He was not the only one that found the concrete in that location, which is not a surprise considering how bumpy that particular corner is.
Even those that made it through the corner cleanly found themselves sideways and nearly out of shape while pushing through the quick left-hander.
Rinus VeeKay missed out on advancing to the second round by a miniscule 0.001 seconds, and he will start down in 14th.
Marcus Armstrong continued to prove he is the quickest rookie at this track, and he will start from 11th.
Santino Ferrucci and Helio Castroneves each caused a local yellow in the first group and had to serve a drive through penalty for impeding others on track. They will start 22nd and 23rd respectively.
Drivers will get a quick warmup session on Sunday morning, but then will dive straight into the race at 3:00 PM Eastern time. With many drivers predicting Nashville-level chaos, it could be a lengthy affair.
