Will Power continued his momentum as he took pole position for the first Verizon IndyCar Series race at Gateway Motorsports Park since 1997 as he led a Team Penske 1-2-3-4.
It was the fiftieth pole position of Power’s career, and it followed on from his stunning victory at Pocono Raceway last weekend, with the Australian continuing his late season push for the championship.
However, joining Power on the front row is Josef Newgarden, the current championship leader, with the young American having secured two wins and a second place in the last three races.
The second row is also all Penske, with Helio Castroneves third ahead of reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud, but more worrying for the rest of the field is that Ed Carpenter was fifth but more than five miles per hour slower across his qualifying attempt than Power.
Takuma Sato was the best placed Honda racer in sixth, with the Andretti Autosport driver finishing just ahead of Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing and Carlos Muñoz of AJ Foyt Racing, with the Colombian enjoying one of his strongest sessions since joining the team at the beginning of the season.
Alexander Rossi, a podium finisher last weekend at Pocono, will start ninth for Andretti Herta Autosport, with James Hinchcliffe completing the top ten for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ahead of Conor Daly and Ed Jones.
Sebastien Bourdais’ return to IndyCar saw the Frenchman qualify nineteenth, just behind the Chip Ganassi Racing trio of Max Chilton, Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball, with the Dale Coyne Racing driver finishing ahead of both Marco Andretti and Sebastian Saavedra.
Gateway Motorsports Park Qualifying Result
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