Phoenix IndyCar: Helio Castroneves claims pole as Penske dominates
Helio Castroneves took pole position at Phoenix, continuing Penske's clean sweep of IndyCar poles in 2017
Castroneves pumped in a 194.905mph two-lap average in the night-time session under floodlights, to beat his Penske team-mate Will Power, whose average was 194.017mph.
Penske dominated the session, taking four of the first five starting slots.
The result also means Castroneves has claimed pole for both Phoenix races since the track rejoined the calendar after an 11-year absence last season.
Power topped the times early on, having been selected to go second in the running order, though the Australian admitted that running so early was a disadvantage.
Penske's dominance only was broken by Ed Carpenter Racing's JR Hildebrand, who will start third as he returns to action after missing the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park due to the hand injury he sustained in a last-lap collision with Mikhail Aleshin in Long Beach.
The other two Penske drivers were next up, Josef Newgarden qualifying fourth and Simon Pagenaud fifth.
Ganassi's Tony Kanaan, the last to run in the session, was sixth quickest, also making him the top Honda runner.
He was followed by Aleshin in seventh, Scott Dixon in eighth and Marco Andretti in ninth.
Points leader Sebastien Bourdais was 10th quickest for Dale Coyne Racing.
QUALIFYING RESULTS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Speed |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 194.905 |
2 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 194.017 |
3 | J.R. Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 193.912 |
4 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 193.676 |
5 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 193.414 |
6 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 192.539 |
7 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 192.327 |
8 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 192.050 |
9 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 191.387 |
10 | Sebastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 191.349 |
11 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 191.194 |
12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 190.799 |
13 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 190.768 |
14 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 190.565 |
15 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 190.405 |
16 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 190.029 |
17 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 189.786 |
18 | Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 189.779 |
19 | Carlos Munoz | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 189.301 |
20 | Conor Daly | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 188.536 |
21 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 186.360 |
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