Pagenaud secures GP of Indy pole; Kimball on front row

Simon Pagenaud’s strong start to the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season continued as the Frenchman took pole position for Saturday’s Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indy.

The Team Penske driver capitalised on the issues of others, most notably team-mates Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya, who were both eliminated from qualifying at the second stage due to traffic, as was Scott Dixon, and Pagenaud’s pole ensures Penske’s 100% pole record in 2016 continues.

With some of the big gun’s eliminated early, it will be Chip Ganassi Racing’s Charlie Kimball who will line-up alongside Pagenaud on the front row, the American’s best qualifying performance so far in his IndyCar career.

Row two will see Graham Rahal alongside James Hinchcliffe, with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver getting the better of the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver by 0.0444s.

The final two drivers who made it through to the Fast Six shootout were Josef Newgarden of Ed Carpenter Racing and Jack Hawksworth, who will start the Grand Prix of Indy from the sixth place on the grid for AJ Foyt Racing.

Just missing out on that Fast Six shootout was Tony Kanaan of Chip Ganassi Racing, who will start seventh alongside Montoya, while Dixon was also a notable absentee from the shootout, ultimately qualifying in ninth for Ganassi, and will start alongside KVSH Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais.

Mikhail Aleshin will start eleventh for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, while Power will start twelfth, despite breaking the Indy road course lap record during the first part of the qualifying session, but was heavily compromised in the second session.

Grand Prix of Indy Qualifying Times

POS	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME
1	22	Simon Pagenaud	FRA	Team Penske	1m08.6868s
2	83	Charlie Kimball	USA	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m08.9816s
3	15	Graham Rahal	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1m09.1816s
4	5	James Hinchcliffe	CAN	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1m09.2260s
5	21	Josef Newgarden	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	1m09.4316s
6	41	Jack Hawksworth	GBR	AJ Foyt Enterprises	1m09.5141s
-	-	Eliminated in Q2	-	-	-
7	10	Tony Kanaan	BRZ	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m09.2511s
8	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	COL	Team Penske	1m09.2645s
9	9	Scott Dixon	NZL	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m09.4010s
10	11	Sebastien Bourdais	FRA	KVSH Racing	1m09.4436s
11	7	Mikhail Aleshin	RUS	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1m09.6771s
12	12	Will Power	AUS	Team Penske	1m09.9297s
-	-	Eliminated in Q1	-	-	-
13	8	Max Chilton	GBR	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m09.3289s
14	98	Alexander Rossi	USA	Andretti Herta Autosport	1m09.1475s
15	3	Helio Castroneves	BRZ	Team Penske	1m09.4947s
16	61	Matt Brabham	AUS	KV Racing/Pirtek Team Murray	1m09.2944s
17	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	Andretti Autosport	1m09.5276s
18	6	JR Hildebrand	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	1m09.4377s
19	26	Carlos Munoz	COL	Andretti Autosport	1m09.6457s
20	16	Spencer Pigot	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1m09.4591s
21	27	Marco Andretti	USA	Andretti Autosport	1m09.7478s
22	14	Takuma Sato	JAP	AJ Foyt Enterprises	1m09.4659s
23	35	Alex Tagliani	CAN	AJ Foyt Enterprises	1m10.4109s
24	18	Conor Daly	USA	Dale Coyne Racing	1m09.4795s
25	19	Gabby Chaves	COL	Dale Coyne Racing	1m09.7720s