O’Ward missiles reach the pole for the IndyCar opener at Barber

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The fight for pole position at Barber Motorsports Park saw three drivers from Chip Ganassi Racing and one each from Andretti Autosport, Arrow McLaren SP and Team Penske tossed their cars around the stunning 2.4-mile road and, once Firestone Fast Six was established, Pato O’Ward, of Arrow McLaren SP, flashed the group with his second pole career.

“GOOOOOOO”, shouted the 2018 Indy Lights champion on the radio after obtaining the first place with a lap of 1m05.8479s in Chevy no. The 24-year-old Mexican was indeed a headache for the others, as he drove the Fast Six and Fast 12 sessions and will have Andretti’s Alexander Rossi with him in first place in the 27th Honda (+ 0.0698s).

“Man, I made a few changes after Practice 2 and worked so hard in the off-season,” O’Ward said. “I knew exactly what I needed to get time out of [Firestone] tomatoes. We did that and we start on the pole. We have a race to win tomorrow. ”

Alex Palou of CGR led his trio in third place with Honda no. 10 (+ 0.2059s), Penske’s Will Power was fourth in Chevy no. 12 (+ 0.2707s), and Scott Dixon of CGR in Honda no. 9 (+0.5497) s) and Marcus Ericsson in Honda no. 10 (+ 0.5623s) completed the sextet.

Just outside Fast Six, former Formula 1 driver and NTT IndyCar Series starter Romain Grosjean smiled after qualifying for seventh place in the No. 1 spot. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda. Better for the Frenchman was the fact that he twice replaced the series champion Josef Newgarden, who will start the eighth.

“We had a bit of traffic, but it doesn’t really matter today,” he said. “I am very proud that the boys will take me to P7. I was just thinking that Josef Newgarden is one of the stars of the series and he knows Barber very well. So I think we can be very happy about that. I think I showed that the work I did in testing worked well. ”

AS MANY AS THEY MEET

In the 10-minute opening session, in which half of the field went out and six headed for Firestone Fast 12, the lucky draw did not favor the Penske team, as all four cars were thrown in the same group. CGR’s Marcus Ericsson led the 12 drivers in the first round of the fastest laps and, once the field stopped, reset and came out for a final explosion around Barber, teammate Alex Palou did a monster tour – the first under 1m06s with 1m05.9032s— to claim P1.

Behind Palou in the six that transferred were Will Power from Penske, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin – with an epic final lap – in a row, Ericsson and Jack Harvey from Meyer Shank Racing. Those who failed to transfer were, in order, Ed Jones, Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Jimmie Johnson and Dalton Kellett.

In the second 10-minute session, in which the other half of the field came out and six advanced in Firestone Fast 12, it turned red in less than three minutes, while James Hinchcliffe slipped on the grass and graveled. at Tower 5 and threw his car into the tire barrier. Andretti Honda no. 29 was not damaged, but rather than pull the car again, the IndyCar safety team towed it behind the barriers and left Hinchcliffe to sit and watch the rest of the session.

With less than five minutes left to run fast, and in the final lap, Pato O’Ward went for a wild ride on the ridge at Tower 13 to eliminate Romain Grosjean from P1 with a lap of 1m06.0696s, with only 0.0013s in front of the DCRwRWR driver. Behind the two were Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi.

Moments after O’Ward crossed the line to go on P1, his teammate Felix Rosenqvist took a wild ride on turn 15, which left his car stuck and stuck in the gravel trap.

Fifth at the time, Rosenqvist lost his fastest laps, eliminating him from the transfer group, moving Scott Dixon from six to five and promoting Colton Herta from outside the group to seventh inside the sixth. . The six who did not go further were Rinus VeeKay, Sebastien Bourdais, Graham Rahal, Max Chilton, Rosenqvist and Hinchcliffe.

In the first round of the Firestone Fast 12, where the top six would transfer, Colton Herta set the best lap on the Firestone primary tires at 1m06.4171s before the group entered and installed the faster, red-banded alternative tires. As the best laps began to flow, Romain Grosjean took P1 and, within a minute, was down to P7, missing out on getting Firestone Fast Six by just 0.0690.

The fastest with another lap record was Pato O’Ward in P1 with 1m5.5019s. From second to sixth were Will Power, Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi.

Starting with Grosjean on the other side of the transfer line in P7, there were a couple of disappointed drivers in Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta in P8 and P9 and a trio of Conor Daly, Jack Harvey and Scott McLaughlin who completed the top 12.

conclusions

Fastest driver: Pato O’Ward, 1m05.8479s

The slowest driver: James Hinchcliffe, timeless

Notes:

  • A strong day for Conor Daly, who led the Ed Carpenter Racing team in P10. The day is relatively quiet for his teammate Rinus VeeKay in P14, who is also facing a finger injury from the recent Indy Open Test.
  • It’s a small victory, but congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, who was 0.1008 times faster than road driver Dalton Kellett throughout his life in their qualifying group. He made sure the rookie didn’t start last on his IndyCar debut, and with some of the driver’s other dramas in the next rounds, Johnson settled in P21 of 24.
  • The tip of Jack Harvey’s hat, which, leading for Andretti’s MSR team, was the third fastest in the group’s five cars.
  • These are three consecutive sessions in which Pagkeud of the Penske team was the last of the four recordings of the Captain.
  • The first hard day for the new AMSP man, Rosenqvist. If a FP1 solo crash in the pit lane wasn’t enough to scratch his head, spinning in qualifying to reach P22, while his teammate took the pole is not the kind of thing to boost someone’s confidence.
  • Dissatisfaction with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing remained strong in every session on Saturday, as Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato qualified P18 and P19 respectively.
  • It’s not something that will let Penske’s Scott McLaughlin feel in love with himself, but qualifying in P12 for his second IndyCar race was impressive.
  • Given how punitive the first rounds were for him in 2020, a middle start for Hunter-Reay is the opposite of what he wanted to open the year.
  • The AJ Foyt Racing team was extremely fast in the pre-season tests, but tried to find the rhythm on Saturday, with Sebastien Bourdais qualifying P16.
  • Marcus Ericsson! His team was optimistic about his chances this year and, if his performance on Saturday means anything, the Swede could be an important factor.

Next: Warm Up, 11:30 AM ET, on Peacock

result

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