Helio Castroneves took a third consecutive pole position for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach as the track record around the legendary street circuit tumbled.
The Team Penske driver set a time of 1:06.2254s during the Fast Six shootout to grab pole ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon by 0.1869 seconds, with for the second time in two races in 2017, Chevrolet took pole position in an otherwise Honda dominated session.
Castroneves was the only Honda-powered car in the Fast Six, the rest were Honda’s, led by Dixon, with Ryan Hunter-Reay third for Andretti Autosport ahead of James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsport.
Alexander Rossi showed good pace to qualify fifth for Andretti Herta Autosport, while Graham Rahal was the final participant in the Fast Six, ultimately ending the session sixth for his fathers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team.
Charlie Kimball was denied a Fast Six appearance by Hunter-Reay by the smallest of margins but will start seventh for Chip Ganassi Racing, ahead of Team Penske duo Josef Newgarden and Will Power, the latter failing to match his pole position from the opening round of the season at St. Petersburg.
Marco Andretti will start tenth for Andretti Autosport, while Tony Kanaan of Chip Ganassi Racing and Sebastien Bourdais of Dale Coyne Racing completed the top twelve.
Simon Pagenaud had looked set to participate in the Fast Twelve segment only for officials to delete his best time as he was found to have impeded team-mate Castroneves, meaning the defending series champion and 2016 Long Beach race winner will start twenty-first and last for Sunday’s race.
Long Beach Qualifying Result
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