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