Sebastian Saavedra has scored a shock pole at the Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying session for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis – a road course race in the build up to the Indy 500.
With the final portion of the multi stage qualifying held in the wet, the KV AFS Racing made full use of a mistake by Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay to take the inaugural pole for the GP of Indy with a time of 1:23.882.
Hunter-Reay – out on a track still very damp from a rain shower a few minutes previously – lost the car coming into the final corner and impacted the wall. He came out unscathed but lost his two best laps for causing the red flag and was relegated to third.
In second, on his first trip to the Brickyard in the IndyCar Series was rapid rookie Jack Hawksworth who was only two tenths behind the Colombian and will start on the front row.
The grid of regulars has one addition for this the opening race in the month of May, that is the additional Andretti entry for Franck Montagny. The Frenchman could only manage 21st on his second IndyCar qualifying session, his first session was five years ago at Sonoma for Andretti Green Racing.
Still in that neck of the grid are a few surprise names that will have their work cut out for them come tomorrow. Amongst them was Long Beach winner Martin Plowman and flying Yorkshireman Justin Wilson.
Back into the top ten and Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya will start eighth on his first visit back to the Indy road course since leaving the world of Formula One.
The first Grand Prix of Indianapolis takes place tomorrow, May 10th, with the field hoping this can propel them into a solid Indy 500 qualifying.
