Sonoma IndyCar: Hunter-Reay grabs pole, O’Ward sensational fifth

Hunter-Reay’s 1min17.6277sec lap of the 2.385-mile Sonoma Raceway came in the dying seconds of the session, edging points leader Dixon by 0.1322sec, and stealing a potential bonus point from him.

Hunter-Reay’s teammate Alexander Rossi, who lies 29 points behind Dixon in the title fight, elected to save a set of Firestone alternate tires for the race, and thus ran only black primaries in the Firestone Fast Six.

He will start sixth alongside the sensation of the session, Harding Racing-Chevrolet’s O’Ward, who was less than 0.35sec off taking pole position. The Mexican rising star ran only one lap in the final session but was thrilled by an amazing debut.

"It's just something unique," he said. "It's something that you have to start believing that you can be like them, that you can beat them, that you can give them a run for their money. It's a new feeling. I really don't know what to think about it. I couldn't be more stoked for the team. I'm really happy I got to give them their first Firestone Fast Six."

The second row will comprise Josef Newgarden in the fastest of the Team Penske-Chevrolets, and Andretti Autosport's Marco Andretti who, like O’Ward, started both the Q2 and Q3 sessions on reds, without bothering with sighting laps on primaries.

Penske’s Will Power and teammate Simon Pagenaud will start seventh and eighth, as Power explained that he and the team had tried to save some life in his reds for Q3 by relying on just a single flying lap in Q2. The tactic failed and he will share the fourth row with Pagenaud, ahead of Graham Rahal’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda.

Zach Veach running onto the Turn 9A dirt on his set of reds relegated him to 10th, ahead of Sebastien Bourdais’ Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan entry and the second RLLR car of Takuma Sato.

Pietro Fittipaldi qualified an impressive 13th fastest for Dale Coyne Racing while teammate Santino Ferrucci was less than 0.1sec slower but will roll off seven places further back.

The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Hondas of James Hinchcliffe and Carlos Munoz will start 15th and 22nd respectively, split by the SPM-Meyer Shank Racing-Honda of occasional teammate Jack Harvey.

Ed Carpenter Racing duo Spencer Pigot and Jordan King were disappointed with 17th and 25th, the latter setting his best time on the black primary Firestones after encountering a mechanical problem when he switched to the softer reds.

Tony Kanaan, making his 360th start – and 300th consecutive – will roll off 18th.

Firestone Fast Six

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Gap	Mph
1	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1'17.6277		110.605
2	9	Scott Dixon	1'17.7599	0.1322	110.417
3	1	Josef Newgarden	1'17.7937	0.1660	110.369
4	98	Marco Andretti	1'17.7999	0.1722	110.360
5	8	Patricio O'Ward	1'17.9737	0.3460	110.114
6	27	Alexander Rossi	1'18.0019	0.3742	110.074

Q2

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Gap	Mph
1	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1'17.4470		110.863
2	1	Josef Newgarden	1'17.4530	0.0060	110.854
3	9	Scott Dixon	1'17.5215	0.0745	110.756
4	8	Patricio O'Ward	1'17.5585	0.1115	110.704
5	27	Alexander Rossi	1'17.5711	0.1241	110.686
6	98	Marco Andretti	1'17.5813	0.1343	110.671
7	12	Will Power	1'17.6495	0.2025	110.574
8	22	Simon Pagenaud	1'17.7489	0.3019	110.432
9	15	Graham Rahal	1'17.9043	0.4573	110.212
10	26	Zach Veach	1'17.9111	0.4641	110.203
11	18	Sébastien Bourdais	1'17.9242	0.4772	110.184
12	30	Takuma Sato	1'17.9919	0.5449	110.088

Q1 - Group 2

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Gap	Mph
1	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1'17.5068		110.777
2	9	Scott Dixon	1'17.5943	0.0875	110.652
3	1	Josef Newgarden	1'17.6219	0.1151	110.613
4	26	Zach Veach	1'18.1307	0.6239	109.893
5	8	Patricio O'Ward	1'18.1765	0.6697	109.828
6	18	Sébastien Bourdais	1'18.3676	0.8608	109.561
7	10	Ed Jones	1'18.5088	1.0020	109.364
8	60	Jack Harvey	1'18.5892	1.0824	109.252
9	14	Tony Kanaan	1'18.5966	1.0898	109.241
10	39	Santino Ferrucci	1'18.6172	1.1104	109.213
11	6	Carlos Munoz	1'18.7211	1.2143	109.069
12	23	Charlie Kimball	1'18.8495	1.3427	108.891
13	20	Jordan King	1'19.1519	1.6451	108.475

Q1 - Group 1

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Gap	Mph
1	22	Simon Pagenaud	1'17.9171		110.194
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1'17.9283	0.0112	110.178
3	12	Will Power	1'17.9290	0.0119	110.177
4	30	Takuma Sato	1'18.0023	0.0852	110.074
5	98	Marco Andretti	1'18.0472	0.1301	110.010
6	15	Graham Rahal	1'18.2625	0.3454	109.708
7	19	Pietro Fittipaldi	1'18.5281	0.6110	109.337
8	5	James Hinchcliffe	1'18.5740	0.6569	109.273
9	21	Spencer Pigot	1'18.6687	0.7516	109.141
10	88	Colton Herta	1'18.6823	0.7652	109.122
11	59	Max Chilton	1'18.7536	0.8365	109.024
12	4	Matheus Leist	1'18.9665	1.0494	108.730