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Qualifying report

Long Beach IndyCar: Castroneves grabs pole, other Penskes falter

For the third consecutive year, Helio Castroneves will start the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach from pole position, but one of his Penske-Chevrolet teammates, Simon Pagenaud, will start from the back.

Polesitter Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet

Polesitter Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet

Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Castroneves’ pole was the 48th of his career, and involved him lowering his 2015 record by 0.4sec, to nail a 1min06.2254sec lap around the 1.986-mile course, beating Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Scott Dixon by almost 0.2sec.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi took third and fifth for Andretti Autosport, with James Hinchcliffe slotting his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda between them. Graham Rahal was sixth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda in sixth.

Pagenaud didn’t even get out of Qualifying’s first of three segments, having his two best times deleted for interference with teammate Castroneves, when he backed off massively into the final hairpin. Pagenaud said another teammate, Will Power, had also backed up him, but Race Control disagreed.

However, Power had a horrible exit from the hairpin on his final lap, wound up ninth, so will start behind Ganassi’s Charlie Kimball and his own Penske teammate Josef Newgarden.

Pagenaud’s penalty allowed Marco Andretti to get a third AA car into the Top 12 but he wound up 10th, just ahead of Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan and St. Petersburg winner, Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing-Honda).

Rookie Ed Jones did a great job to grab 13th, just behind teammate Bourdais, with Carlos Munoz 14th for AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.

Qualifying results:

Pos.#DriverTeamTimeGap
1 3 brazil Helio Castroneves  Team Penske 1'06.2254  
2 9 new_zealand Scott Dixon  Chip Ganassi Racing 1'06.4123 0.1869
3 28 united_states Ryan Hunter-Reay  Andretti Autosport 1'06.4401 0.2147
4 5 canada James Hinchcliffe  Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 1'06.5291 0.3037
5 98 united_states Alexander Rossi  Andretti Autosport 1'06.5595 0.3341
6 15 united_states Graham Rahal  Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'06.7562 0.5308
Fast Six cut-off - 1'06.5320s
7 83 united_states Charlie Kimball  Chip Ganassi Racing 1'06.5404 0.3150
8 2 united_states Josef Newgarden  Team Penske 1'06.6074 0.3820
9 12 australia Will Power  Team Penske 1'06.6145 0.3891
10 27 united_states Marco Andretti  Andretti Autosport 1'06.6222 0.3968
11 10 brazil Tony Kanaan  Chip Ganassi Racing 1'06.6262 0.4008
12 18 france Sébastien Bourdais  Dale Coyne Racing 1'06.7853 0.5599
Q2 cut-off - 1'07.4149s (Group 1), 1'07.3054s (Group 2)
13 19 united_arab_emirates Ed Jones  Dale Coyne Racing 1'07.5832 1.3578
14 14 colombia Carlos Munoz  A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'07.3783 1.1529
15 21 united_states J.R. Hildebrand  Ed Carpenter Racing 1'07.6931 1.4677
16 7 russia Mikhail Aleshin  Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 1'07.3893 1.1639
17 4 united_states Conor Daly  A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'07.7977 1.5723
18 26 japan Takuma Sato  Andretti Autosport 1'07.4699 1.2445
19 20 united_states Spencer Pigot  Ed Carpenter Racing 1'07.8442 1.6188
20 8 united_kingdom Max Chilton  Chip Ganassi Racing 1'07.5333 1.3079
21 1 france Simon Pagenaud  Team Penske 1'08.0439 1.8185

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