Gateway IndyCar: Power edges Herta, takes first pole of 2021

Third driver to go out, Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Felix Rosenqvist, became the first driver of the weekend to produce a 179mph lap and landed a two-lap average of 178.928mph. That was enough to survive strong efforts from Ed Jones (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan), and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport-Honda), until finally eclipsed by Alexander Rossi.

The Andretti Autosport-Honda driver became the first to produce two laps in the 179mph bracket as he nailed a 179.731mph average, but then Will Power came up with a first lap of 180.158mph – despite struggling with a downshift to fourth into Turn 1 – and then his second lap was 181.081mph.

Power’s teammate Simon Pagenaud came close to edging him, with a stronger first lap, but bled off a tenth on the second lap – as opposed to Power’s stronger second lap – and wound up P2.

That left the 2016 champion vulnerable to Colton Herta’s attack, and sure enough, the youngster’s two 180.5mph laps resulted in second – less than 0.1mph from Power.

Marcus Ericsson managed to beat Rossi’s speed with a single 180mph lap to go fastest of the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas, while Josef Newgarden beat them both. However his first lap was ‘only’ 179.9 which neutered the fact that he produced the strongest second lap of anyone, and left him third fastest, starting alongside Pagenaud.

Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP entry claimed fifth, to beat Ericsson by hundredths of a mile-per-hour, while Rossi will roll off seventh alongside six-time and defending champion Scott Dixon.

Graham Rahal’s average of precisely 179.000mph was enough to claim 10^th alongside Rosenqvist.

Penske’s rookie Scott McLaughlin appeared mildly tentative on his first flying lap, only 177.940mph, but his second lap was 179.898 – fastest of the day to that point – which sent him vaulting up to second place, with an average of 178.914mph.

Oval debutant Romain Grosjean looked very settled in the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda, and produced a two-lap average of 178.220mph, despite a slightly messy second lap, and managed to outpace the likes of Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda and Tony Kanaan’s Ganassi entry. Grosjean’s two-lap average was only 0.1mph slower than teammate Jones’s effort, and he will start 14^th of the 24 cars.

Championship leader Alex Palou’s fortunes took a knock, with only 12^th fastest time, on top of his nine-place grid penalty for an early engine change.

The cars will now be impounded, with minimal changes allowed before the race start at 7.40pm local (Central) time.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	12	Will Power	Team Penske	49.828
2	26	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	49.853	0.024
3	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	49.858	0.030
4	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	49.898	0.069
5	5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	50.029	0.200
6	8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	50.044	0.216
7	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	50.114	0.285
8	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	50.142	0.313
9	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	50.279	0.450
10	7	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	50.299	0.470
11	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	50.303	0.474
12	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	50.398	0.569
13	18	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing	50.454	0.625
14	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	50.460	0.631
15	51	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	50.499	0.670
16	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	50.536	0.707
17	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	50.597	0.768
18	48	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	50.796	0.967
19	14	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	50.882	1.053
20	29	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	50.896	1.068
21	59	Conor Daly	Carlin	50.978	1.149
22	20	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	51.061	1.232
23	21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	51.073	1.244
24	4	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	51.486	1.657
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