Takuma Sato takes the pole for the first race of Houston that is going to start in few hours and he does it her Foyt Racing team home. Foyt´s celebrates its first pole since 1999. The Japanese driver will start from the top with Power by his side. Power will be forced to start from the dirty side of the track with less grip, behind him his rival Scott Dixon. Castroneves, the only driver who has driven all laps of all rounds of the championship, could secure the championship after this race but he starts 22 °, he will need to recover lot of positions.
There were not any accident during both sessions except the first one with a spin of the Rokie Vautier made to stop the session was red flagged, this situation many pilots would have only one chance to improve and make their lap. (Very dangerous situation in street circuits). Recall also that Sebastian Bourdais has won at this track twice, he will be a favorite as he sets fourth best time but he has 10 positions penalty due to motor change. The French has shown what he can do from the back of the grid as he showed in Baltimore
This circuit of Houston, after his return to the championship is still very difficult from the organizational point of view, the layout and the various accidents in different categories competing this weekend have been delayed gradually the organization of the event. This has led the organization to make maximum efforts and change some reforms about some procedures that were initially marked. In this case for today’s qualifying would be like the rest of the season by qualyfings for the next rounds “fasts” but eventually the two groups have been given and drivers have fought for odd and odd position, the best group takes the pole, finally the starting grid is like this:
| Qualification Results | |||||
| The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston – Race 1 | |||||
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Best Time | Best Speed | Round |
| 1 | 14 | Takuma Sato | 0,09415509 | 97.305 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 2 | 12 | Will Power | 1:01.1524 | 96.192 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 3 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:00.6057 | 97.060 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 4 | 7 | Sebastien Bourdais | 1:01.4911 | 95.663 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 5 | 77 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:00.6184 | 97.040 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 6 | 78 | Simona De Silvestro | 1:01.5527 | 95.567 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 7 | 27 | James Hinchcliffe | 1:01.2123 | 96.098 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 8 | 98 | Luca Filippi (R) | 1:01.6520 | 95.413 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 9 | 5 | E.J. Viso | 1:01.3274 | 95.918 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 10 | 10 | Dario Franchitti | 1:01.7201 | 95.308 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 11 | 16 | James Jakes | 1:01.3678 | 95.855 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 12 | 25 | Marco Andretti | 1:01.7907 | 95.199 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 13 | 18 | Mike Conway | 1:01.5154 | 95.625 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 14 | 19 | Justin Wilson | 1:01.8065 | 95.174 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 15 | 11 | Tony Kanaan | 1:01.5409 | 95.585 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 16 | 1 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1:01.8305 | 95.138 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 17 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 1:01.6329 | 95.443 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 18 | 4 | Oriol Servia | 1:01.9043 | 95.024 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 19 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 1:02.0140 | 94.856 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 20 | 67 | Josef Newgarden | 1:02.1588 | 94.635 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 21 | 6 | Sebastian Saavedra | 1:02.1175 | 94.698 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 22 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 1:02.2823 | 94.447 | Qual / Group 1 |
| 23 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 1:03.5193 | 92.608 | Qual / Group 2 |
| 24 | 55 | Tristan Vautier (R) | No Time | No Speed | Qual / Group 1 |