Josef Newgarden will start from pole position for the Grand Prix of Alabama of the Verizon IndyCar Series which will be held this Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park.
In the first qualifying group, Robert Wickens (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) would dominate this, but it would not be the Canadian who would set the best lap-time.
Reigning champion Josef Newgarden (Team Penske) set the fastest lap and went to the Top12 together with Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport), James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports), Wickens, Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport) and Ed Jones (Chip Ganassi Racing).
Eliminated Group 1:
Max Chilton (Carlin), Graham Rahal (Rahal Lettermann Lanigan Racing), Spencer Pigot (Ed Carpenter Racing), Jordan King (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Matheus Leist (A.J. Foyt Enterprises).
In the second group, the action was over before the checker flag due to an accident of Tony Kanaan (A.J. Foyt Enterprises) that caused the red flag with two minutes remaining.
This allowed Will Power (Team Penske) to set the fastest lap, followed by Sébastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing), Zach Veach (Andretti Autosport), Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport), Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske) and Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing).
Eliminated Group 2:
Charlie Kimball (Carlin), Zachary Calaman de Melo (Dale Coyne Racing), Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Gabby Chaves (Harding Racing), Rene Binder (Juncos Racing) and Kanaan.
Already in the Top12, Hunter-Reay lock-up the brakes and went off track to the demanding turn 5, while his teammate Alexander Rossi was leding the classification.
But in the last minutes, the roles were exchanged, Hunter-Reay managed to move to Fast 6 along with Bourdais, Dixon, Hinchcliffe, Power and Josef Newgarden that returned to mark the best record.
Removed Top12:
Andretti, Rossi, Pagenaud, Wickens, Veach, Jones
The Fast 6 started with a solid Sébastien Bourdais with the best time. The French, but would stay close to get the Verizon P1 Award because of the Penske’s Newgarden and Power.
Hunter-Reay finished fourth, followed by Hinchcliffe and Dixon.