Portland IndyCar: Palou takes first pole as Penskes falter

Firestone Fast Six

Palou laid down a 58.7701sec lap around the 1.964-mile Portland International Raceway to beat Rossi by a mere 0.0872sec in the Firestone Fast Six and claim his first ever pole.

Palou’s six-time championship-winning teammate Scott Dixon was a mere 0.01sec further adrift, ahead of his erstwhile teammate Felix Rosenqvist, the fastest of the Chevrolet runners.

Graham Rahal achieved his best qualifying result of the season with fifth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda.

Colton Herta, polesitter here in 2019, took the brave gamble to try and take pole using the Firestone primary tires but came off half a second short.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	58.7701	58.7701	0.000	4	4	58.7701	0		1	120.306	6:07.0052	Honda	A	8	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	27	Alexander Rossi	58.8573	0.0872	0.0872	3	3	58.8573	0		5	120.128	5:49.2850	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport
3	9	Scott Dixon	58.8673	0.0972	0.0100	3	4	1:00.3659	0		2	120.107	6:14.5117	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.9505	0.1804	0.0832	3	3	58.9505	0		6	119.938	5:03.9528	Chevy	A	5	Arrow McLaren SP
5	15	Graham Rahal	59.0067	0.2366	0.0562	4	4	59.0067	0		3	119.824	6:17.0784	Honda	A	11	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	26	Colton Herta	59.2796	0.5095	0.2729	4	4	59.2796	0		4	119.272	6:26.3992	Honda	P	16	Andretti Autosport

The PNC Bank-colored Ganassi-Hondas of Alex Palou and Scott Dixon topped the session, appearing to shave a tenth off every time they went out, but the big surprise was Graham Rahal usurping Colton Herta at the last minute to grab third.

A mere 0.0112sec adrift of Herta was Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi, while Felix Rosenqvist knocked his Arrow McLaren SP teammate Pato O’Ward aside by a mere 0.0058sec to make it through.

Ed Jones of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan was eighth, a sliver ahead of impressive fellow former Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew in the second #45 RLL-Honda, about 0.15sec behind teammate Rahal.

Marcus Ericsson was 10^th for Ganassi, ahead of Max Chilton’s Carlin-Chevy and Sebastien Bourdais in the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	58.7691	58.7691	0.000	8	8	58.7691	5		4	120.308	10:11.2307	Honda	A	8	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	9	Scott Dixon	58.8200	0.0509	0.0509	8	8	58.8200	5		8	120.204	10:08.4803	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	15	Graham Rahal	58.9338	0.1647	0.1138	8	8	58.9338	4		3	119.972	10:17.5926	Honda	A	11	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
4	26	Colton Herta	58.9459	0.1768	0.0121	6	7	59.0148	4		6	119.947	9:50.9546	Honda	A	16	Andretti Autosport
5	27	Alexander Rossi	58.9571	0.1880	0.0112	8	8	58.9571	5		5	119.924	10:01.8791	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport
6	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.9629	0.1938	0.0058	8	8	58.9629	5		2	119.913	10:27.9797	Chevy	A	5	Arrow McLaren SP
7	5	Pato O'Ward	58.9732	0.2041	0.0103	7	8	59.0516	4		11	119.892	10:13.6580	Chevy	A	4	Arrow McLaren SP
8	18	Ed Jones	59.0247	0.2556	0.0515	8	8	59.0247	5		10	119.787	10:32.1859	Honda	A	12	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
9	45	Oliver Askew	59.0837	0.3146	0.0590	7	8	59.1635	4		9	119.668	10:36.0689	Honda	A	34	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.0901	0.3210	0.0064	8	8	59.0901	5		1	119.655	9:58.1162	Honda	A	6	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	59	Max Chilton	59.2346	0.4655	0.1445	5	8	1:03.7663	2		7	119.363	10:43.3597	Chevy	A	23	Carlin
12	14	Sebastien Bourdais	59.2419	0.4728	0.0073	7	8	59.5512	4		12	119.348	10:25.0627	Chevy	A	10	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Q1 Group 2

This morning’s pacesetter Alex Palou was the fastest driver on the Firestone primary tires, his 59.2883sec lap able to withstand Josef Newgarden’s first flyer on the alternate compound tires. However, then the times started to tumble as everyone took on reds, and it was Felix Rosenqvist who slotted his Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet in top spot ahead of Palou, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, a tremendous last-gasp effort from Scott Dixon (Ganassi), an impressive fifth by Ed Jones (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan-Honda) and sixth for two-time Portland winner Sebastien Bourdais in AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.

Remarkably, the elimination of Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud meant none of the Penskes made it even to Q2.

Meyer Shank Racing-Honda could be disappointed that their practice promise meant nothing, with Jack Harvey failing to progress.

Takuma Sato and Rinus VeeKay failed to make it through but both will be receiving 6-place grid penalties anyway for early engine changes.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.6912	58.6912	0.000	8	8	58.6912	5		7	120.468	10:21.2484	Chevy	A	5	Arrow McLaren SP
2	10	Alex Palou	58.7971	0.1059	0.1059	8	8	58.7971	5		1	120.251	10:12.0903	Honda	P	8	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	26	Colton Herta	58.8450	0.1538	0.0479	7	8	58.9189	5		5	120.153	10:00.7968	Honda	P	16	Andretti Autosport
4	9	Scott Dixon	58.8684	0.1772	0.0234	8	8	58.8684	5		6	120.105	10:49.2291	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	18	Ed Jones	58.9330	0.2418	0.0646	7	8	59.2242	5		10	119.974	10:55.5512	Honda	A	12	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
6	14	Sebastien Bourdais	58.9390	0.2478	0.0060	8	8	58.9390	5		8	119.961	10:23.6397	Chevy	A	10	AJ Foyt Enterprises
7	12	Will Power	59.0032	0.3120	0.0642	8	8	59.0032	5		4	119.831	10:40.5177	Chevy	A	9	Team Penske
8	20	Conor Daly	59.0974	0.4062	0.0942	7	8	1:00.1440	5		11	119.640	10:31.5463	Chevy	A	13	Ed Carpenter Racing
9	2	Josef Newgarden	59.1371	0.4459	0.0397	9	9	59.1371	4		3	119.559	10:53.6756	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
10	60	Jack Harvey	59.1463	0.4551	0.0092	6	8	59.2042	4		2	119.541	10:51.8217	Honda	A	24	Meyer Shank Racing
11	21	Rinus VeeKay	59.1885	0.4973	0.0422	7	8	59.2409	5		9	119.456	10:34.5694	Chevy	A	14	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	30	Takuma Sato	59.1953	0.5041	0.0068	8	8	59.1953	5		14	119.442	10:08.0734	Honda	A	20	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13	22	Simon Pagenaud	59.6591	0.9679	0.4638	8	8	59.6591	5		12	118.513	10:45.1914	Chevy	A	15	Team Penske
14	4	Dalton Kellett	59.7438	1.0526	0.0847	8	8	59.7438	4		13	118.345	10:38.4766	Chevy	A	3	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Q1 Group 1

The first driver to set a time on reds was Andretti Autosport’s James Hinchcliffe but he was soon usurped by Max Chilton of Carlin-Chevrolet, and then Marcus Ericsson ducked under the 59sec barrier, Graham Rahal joining the Swede in that bracket for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda.

Alexander Rossi jumped to third with his final flyer, but Chilton clung on to fourth, ahead of another RLL driver, Oliver Askew, who is preparing for only his third IndyCar start of the year.

He was a couple of hundredths quicker than Pato O’Ward who manhandled the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet on his final run to scrape through.

Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda was left on the inside looking in, as was Hinchcliffe, and the Penske-Chevrolet of rookie Scott McLaughlin.

However, McLaughlin felt he had been impeded by Grosjean, Race Control agreed and deleted the Frenchman’s best time, dumping him to 11^th in the 13-car segment, behind his Penske-mounted rookie rival.

The second-placed runner from this morning Helio Castroneves could not reproduce his practice form, less than a tenth ahead of IndyCar debutant Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger-Chevrolet, who was only 0.69sec off Ericsson’s pacesetting time in the session.

Jimmie Johnson was also impressive, within a second of Ericsson.

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay didn’t even turn a lap due to an unspecified mechanical issue that has prompted the squad to change the engine.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	8	Marcus Ericsson	58.8094	58.8094	0.000	7	8	58.9050	5		7	120.226	10:17.4326	Honda	A	375	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	15	Graham Rahal	58.9369	0.1275	0.1275	8	8	58.9369	4		5	119.966	10:36.1982	Honda	A	319	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	27	Alexander Rossi	59.0177	0.2083	0.0808	8	8	59.0177	5		4	119.801	10:34.8299	Honda	A	259	Andretti Autosport
4	59	Max Chilton	59.0735	0.2641	0.0558	5	8	1:00.1444	2		11	119.688	10:42.8453	Chevy	A	99	Carlin
5	45	Oliver Askew	59.1960	0.3866	0.1225	8	8	59.1960	5		8	119.441	10:39.0172	Honda	A	24	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	5	Pato O'Ward	59.2142	0.4048	0.0182	8	8	59.2142	5		2	119.404	10:32.6066	Chevy	A	435	Arrow McLaren SP
7	51	Romain Grosjean	59.2231	0.4137	0.0089	8	8	59.2231	5		3	119.386	10:43.6858	Honda	A	222	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
8	29	James Hinchcliffe	59.2537	0.4443	0.0306	4	8	59.3271	5		9	119.324	10:20.4962	Honda	A	189	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
9	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.3563	0.5469	0.1026	7	8	1:00.8358	4		6	119.118	10:45.5710	Chevy	A	245	Team Penske
10	06	Helio Castroneves	59.4190	0.6096	0.0627	8	8	59.4190	5		1	118.992	10:27.1200	Honda	A	134	Meyer Shank Racing
11	77	Callum Ilott	59.5008	0.6914	0.0818	7	7	59.5008	4		12	118.829	10:47.4405	Chevy	A	37	Juncos Hollinger Racing
12	48	Jimmie Johnson	59.7120	0.9026	0.2112	8	8	59.7120	4		10	118.408	10:09.0685	Honda	A	72	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	No Time	---	---	--	---	--.---	0		13	---		Honda	Ao	215	Andretti Autosport