Qualifying report
Indy GP: Top 10 quotes after qualifying
Will Power won the pole for Saturday’s INDYCAR Grand Prix on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images
| Cla | # | Driver | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 |  Will Power |
1'07.7044 | 129.687 | |
| "The car was great on used tires, and I thought on the new tires, I had a bit of understeer. I thought that it would really come in on used tires. In the Firestone Fast Six the car had a fantastic balance and did a really neat lap. I was actually up on the second set and then got too greedy at the end. Really cool to start at the front again, really determined to have a good race. I've been knocking on the door every week, and one is going to go our way here soon. You put yourself in that position, it'll happen. That's the plan." | |||||
| 2 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves |
1'08.1169 | 0.4125 | 128.902 |
| "I'm really excited. Now in the Verizon colors, it's going to look good, actually, the front row between the Verizon super aero, so looking excited to be honest, especially in a place here that's always very tough and is very technical. I had up and down for the first time we're at least very consistent during qualifying. Jonathan Diuguid, my engineer, and all the rest of our engineers, they work really well together, and let me tell you guys, it's tough. When you put all of those guys together, you have a little bit of strategy going on, and obviously it's very tough. But Will right now is definitely qualifying -- like I said before, when you match a good driver with probably where he feels comfortable and with a good car, I mean, he's made a very good lap. Excited for tomorrow. Hopefully we have a good, clean start, and see what happens in the race." | |||||
| 3 | 2 |  Josef Newgarden |
1'08.1622 | 0.4578 | 128.816 |
| "We've not had a strong result (here at the INDYCAR Grand Prix). Last year qualified in the Firestone Fast Six but went to the back with a penalty. It's never been kind with one thing or the other, but that doesn't mean much for tomorrow. I'm not going to be looking at history to try and figure out how our day is going to go tomorrow. I think we had fast cars all weekend. We had all our guys pretty much up there, and Will (Power) was really good. He laid down a good lap. I think we're going to be hard pressed to beat our teammates. That's what we've got to do tomorrow is beat Will, bet Helio (Castroneves, beat Juan (Pablo Montoya), and you can never count out (Scott) Dixon. I think he'll be strong in race conditions. It'll be tough. Hopefully we can right the wrongs we've had here in the past." | |||||
| 4 | 9 |  Scott Dixon |
1'08.2454 | 0.5410 | 128.659 |
| "I think we unloaded fast and had a good start to the day in practice overall with the NTT Data car. The second practice didn't really allow us to lay down a good lap with the timing of the red flag at the end of the session. I'm pretty happy with the car but the Chevys are going to be hard to beat. I think it will be an interesting race and anything can happen here." | |||||
| 5 | 22 |  Juan Pablo Montoya |
1'08.2478 | 0.5434 | 128.655 |
| "I thought it was pretty good. The last run when we saw that Will ran, I mean, when I ran that flat the second session, I ran whatever it is, the 68 flat in the second session, I made a couple mistakes, and I thought, I got probably an 80 or something in me, I'm going to give it a go, and instead of going faster made a couple mistakes went slower in the first lap, and in the second lap I really nailed the start of the lap and I nailed Turn 12 and when I went to Turn 13 spun the tires and bad spun. Yeah, I got it like just a big drift, and when I went to the extra time, I was fourth ends in one second corner. That's it. But it's okay, last time I qualified was September or something last year, so I feel pretty good. I'm working with a new engineer with Raul and with Ron Ruzewski, and we seem to have really good chemistry, doing a really good job together, and to be honest, making -- our goal was to make the Fast Six, and we did, and to be honest, we had pace to be second fastest today no problem. I missed it by a tenth and a half, and I made a hundred mistakes in the lap." | |||||
| 6 | 18 |  Sébastien Bourdais |
1'08.3973 | 0.6929 | 128.373 |
| "Well, I mean, it's actually the first good qualifying effort to be honest. You know, we really struggled with pace and couldn't quite get things where we wanted to be. It's the first time we were a legit Firestone Fast Six car and we're in the mix, we're in the fight, this fight being in the middle of a Penske fest. You know, it's quite good, really, you know, to be - I feel like we're in a bit of the minority here with Scott (Dixon). No, really, hats off to those boys, and our Honda tech guy did a really, really nice job, as well, in qualifying, and we did a good performance, and we did everything we had to do and did it well, and it was pretty close. Made a small mistake on that last lap in Segment 3, I just went for it, like OK, we just need a little bit more, and lost the rear in the start of the lap. So that turned into a one-lap-only effort. But there were countless hours to build that car back up from what it was after Phoenix, which really wasn't much at all left. So you know, they worked every day except Sunday. It's a big testament to that small organization that's really got inspiration to grow and develop, and it's just a cool feeling." | |||||
| 7 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud |
1'08.4461 | 0.7417 | 128.282 |
| "It just didn't work out and wasn't our day. The Menards Chevy team worked really hard throughout the day, but it doesn't always go the way you'd like. We'll start seventh which isn't terrible. We came from the back at St. Pete. You never know what's going to happen. I feel really good about the car and look forward to a good result tomorrow in the race." | |||||
| 8 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
1'08.5735 | 0.8691 | 128.044 |
| "We had some hiccups earlier in the day that prevented us from really getting a good read on the car prior to qualifying. In qualifying, we had our challenges but we stepped up. Not exactly happy with P8, but not overly disappointed either. We can work from there and hopefully tomorrow we can move the DHL car forward and challenge for a podium." | |||||
| 9 | 98 | Alexander Rossi |
1'08.5824 | 0.8780 | 128.027 |
| "It was an OK qualifying. We're missing two-tenths (of a second) to the top Honda and that's not because of anything major. The NAPA Auto Parts car is in the window, but we're going up against four cars from the other side who have a bit of an advantage here. We'll just have to keep plugging away and maximize our opportunities tomorrow." | |||||
| 10 | 5 |  James Hinchcliffe |
1'08.8668 | 1.1624 | 127.498 |
| "Tomorrow is going to be a long day for the Arrow Electronics crew. We rolled off the truck for our worst Friday that we've had all season which is unfortunate. Our car really isn't where we'd like it to be, and we haven't had the ideal time today to get a good grasp on it all... Hopefully now that we've got a good night ahead to sleep on it, we can take a bit of a closer look at everything and try and put together a plan. We'll put our heads down and try to put on a good show tomorrow." | |||||
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