O’Ward rockets at the pole to open IndyCar at Barber

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In the battle for pole position at Barber Motorsports Park three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers and one each from Andretti Autosport, Arrow McLaren SP and Team Penske were seen throwing their cars around the magnificent 2.4 mile road course. and once the Firestone Fast Six was installed, Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward swept the group with its second race pole.

“GOOOOOOO”, the 2018 Indy Lights champion shouted on the radio after taking first place with a lap of 1m05.8479 in the No. 5 Chevy. The 24-year-old Mexican suffered a bad of head for the others as he led the Fast Six and Fast 12 sessions and will feature Andretti’s Alexander Rossi in the front row of the No. 27 Honda (+0.0698s).

“Man, we made some changes after Practice 2 and we’ve been working really hard during the offseason,” O’Ward said. “I knew exactly what I needed to get time out of [Firestone] red. We did it and started at the pole. We have a race to win tomorrow. “

Alex Palou of CGR led his trio in third place with Honda No. 10 (+ 0.2059s), Will Power of Penske was fourth in No. 12 of Chevy (+0.2707s) and Scott Dixon of CGR in number 9 from Honda (+0.5497s) and Marcus Ericsson at number 10 from Honda (+0.52323s) completed the sextet.

Just outside the Fast Six, former Formula One driver and rookie NTT IndyCar Series rider Romain Grosjean smiled after finishing seventh at No. 51 in Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda. Even better for the Frenchman was the fact that he displaced the double champion of the series Josef Newgarden, who will come out eighth.

“It had a bit of traffic, but it doesn’t matter today,” he said. “I am very proud that the boys take me to P7. I just thought Josef Newgarden was one of the stars of the series and knows Barber very well. So I think we can be very happy about that. I think we have shown that the work we have done in the tests has worked well.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In the initial 10-minute session, where half the field went off and six advanced to the Firestone Fast 12, the luck of the qualifying draw did not favor the Penske team, as all four cars were thrown into the same group. CGR’s Marcus Ericsson led the 12 riders in the first round of fastest laps and once the field was up, he recovered and came out in the last explosion around Barber, his teammate. Alex Palou delivered a monster lap: first under 1m06s with 1m05.9032s— to claim P1.

Behind Palou in the six who were transferred were Penske’s Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin – with one last epic lap – in a row, Ericsson and Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing. Those unable to transfer were, in order, Ed Jones, Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Jimmie Johnson and Dalton Kellett.

In the second 10-minute session, where the other half of the field came out and six advanced to the Firestone Fast 12, it turned red in less than three minutes when James Hinchcliffe slipped on the grass and grabbed gravel. at turn 5 and nailed the car to the tire barrier. Andretti Honda’s No. 29 was not injured, but instead of firing the car again, IndyCar’s security team towed him behind the barriers and left Hinchcliffe to sit and watch the rest of the session. .

With less than five minutes left to chase a fast time, and on the final lap, Pato O’Ward went for a wild ride down the ridge on turn 13 to knock Romain Grosjean out of the P1 with a lap of 1m06. 0696s, with only 0.0013s ahead of the DCRwRWR controller. Behind the two were Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi.

Moments after O’Ward crossed the line to reach P1, his teammate Felix Rosenqvist made a wild trip on turn 15 that left the car trapped and stopped in the gravel trap.

Fifth at the time, Rosenqvist lost his two fastest laps, leaving him out of the transfer group, moving Scott Dixon from sixth to fifth and advancing Colton Herta out of the group in seventh place inside in sixth. place. The six who went no further were Rinus VeeKay, Sebastien Bourdais, Graham Rahal, Max Chilton, Rosenqvist and Hinchcliffe.

In the first round of the Firestone Fast 12, where the first six would be traded, Colton Herta set the fastest lap for Firestone’s primary tires at 1m06.4171 seconds before the group was ready and installed the red-band alternative tires. faster. When the best laps started to flow, Romain Grosjean took the P1 and, within a minute, fell to the P7, stopping to make the Firestone Fast Six by just 0.0690.

The fastest with another lap record was Pato O’Ward in P1 with 1m5.5019s. From second to sixth place were Will Power, Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi.

Starting with Grosjean on the other side of the transfer line at P7, there were a couple of disappointed drivers at Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta at P8 and P9, and a trio of Conor Daly, Jack Harvey and Scott McLaughlin who completed the 12 first.

DOORS TO TAKE AWAY

Fastest driver: Pato O’Ward, 1m05.8479s

Slower driver: James Hinchcliffe, timeless

Notable mentions:

  • Strong day for Conor Daly, who led the Ed Carpenter Racing team in P10. Relatively quiet day for teammate Rinus VeeKay at P14, who also faces finger injury from Indy’s recent open test.
  • It’s a small win, but congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, who was 0.1008 faster than lifelong road racer Dalton Kellett in his qualifying group. He assured that the debutant would not start last in his IndyCar debut and, with some of the other driver dramas of the following rounds, Johnson settled into P21 of 24.
  • Hat tip to Jack Harvey, who, driving for the MSR team affiliated with Andretti, was the third fastest of the group’s five cars.
  • These are three consecutive sessions where Team Penske’s Pagenaud was the last of the four entries in The Captain.
  • First difficult day for the new AMSP man, Rosenqvist. If a solo FP1 clash in the pit lane wasn’t enough for a linebacker, deviating from the standings to finish P22 while his teammate got to the pole isn’t the kind of thing that builds confidence.
  • Discontent over Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing remained strong in all of Saturday’s sessions as Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato qualified P18 and P19, respectively.
  • It’s not something that let Scott McLaughlin of Penske feel in love with himself, but qualifying at P12 for his second IndyCar race was awesome.
  • Given how it was for him to punish the first rounds in 2020, a midfield start for Hunter-Reay is the opposite of what he wanted to open the year.
  • AJ Foyt Racing’s team was very fast in the pre-season tests, but on Saturday it was hard to find the pace with Sebastien Bourdais qualifying P16.
  • Marcus Ericsson His team was optimistic about his chances this year and, if his performances on Saturday meant anything, the Swede could be a major factor.

Then: Warm Up, at 11:30 am ET, in Peacock

RESULTS

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