Takuma Sato is maintaining the good feelings and just 7 days after winning the Indy 500, the Japanese has secured the pole position for the second race of the IndyCar Series at the Belle Isle circuit in Detroit, Michigan. Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal followed.
Like yesterday, the qualifying session was divided into two groups of drivers with 12 minutes of session each.
In the first group, Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) began leading the session before the red flag caused by Carlos Muñoz (A. J. Foyt Enterprises), who hit the wall on Turn 2.
When the green flag returned, Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) managed to beat Castroneves by two tenths.
Group A Results:
1 Hunter-Reay 2 Castroneves 3 Aleshin 4 Dixon 5 Daly 6 Kimball 7 Rossi 8 Chilton 9 Hildebrand 10 Servià 11 Muñoz
In the second group, there would be no red flag and this would allow the drivers to use warmer tires. Will Power (Team Penske) led most of the session, but the Australian went off track at Turn 3 in the last minute and went down to fourth.
The pole position was achieved by Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato (Andretti Autosport), who beat yesterday’s winner Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) by a tenth.
Group B Results:
1 Sato 2 Rahal 3 Hinchcliffe 4 Power 5 Andretti 6 Pagenaud 7 Newgarden 8 Kanaan 9 Jones 10 Gutierrez 11 Pigot
Starting Grid:
1. (26) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:13.6732 (114.831)
2. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 01:15.2833 (112.376)
3. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:13.8105 (114.618)
4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 01:15.5279 (112.012)
5. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 01:13.8264 (114.593)
6. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 01:16.0371 (111.261)
7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:13.9449 (114.410)
8. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:16.1727 (111.063)
9. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 01:14.0339 (114.272)
10. (4) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:16.1732 (111.063)
11. (1) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 01:14.0765 (114.206)
12. (83) Charlie Kimball, Honda, 01:16.1800 (111.053)
13. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:14.1814 (114.045)
14. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:16.2884 (110.895)
15. (10) Tony Kanaan, Honda, 01:14.3287 (113.819)
16. (8) Max Chilton, Honda, 01:16.5150 (110.567)
17. (19) Ed Jones, Honda, 01:14.7786 (113.134)
18. (21) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 01:18.6272 (107.596)
19. (18) Esteban Gutierrez, Honda, 01:15.0055 (112.792)
20. (16) Oriol Servia, Honda, 01:21.4485 (103.869)
21. (20) Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, 01:15.8491 (111.537)
22. (14) Carlos Munoz, Chevrolet, No Time (No Speed)