Australian Will Power won his first pole position at IndyCar this season, and his teammate Scott McLaughlin will start off the top 10 on the track in Indianapolis tomorrow.
For the government it is 64th pole position of his IndyCar career and sixth on the Indy Road Course.
Power is a specialist on the Indy Road course who has won five times, he has also turned four of his five previous poles into victories.
In an incredibly tense session, the Australian got a pole just 0.04 seconds away from reigning champion and current series leader Alex Pal.
Power’s Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden starts third, just 0.02 seconds away.
Conor Daly qualified fourth, ahead of two Arrow McLaren SP racers Pat O’Ward and Felix Rosenquist.
New Zealander McLaughlin was disappointed that he did not get into the top six.
At the end of the first run on hard tires McLaughlin took second place, but on his first lap with soft tires at the end of the second segment McLaughlin made a mistake. He tried to pass the second round, but the tires were not the best, he got 11 qualificationsth.
Although he improved by only 0.07 seconds on soft tires, the three-time Supercars champion was only 0.37 seconds away from Paulo’s fastest man session and just 0.15 seconds away from making Fast Six.
Calum Helot, who finished second in the Formula 2 championship, qualified for the best seventh place in his career, but the young Englishman was bitter-sweet, and he missed Fast Six by 0.02 seconds.
Second-rookie and F2 race winner Christian Lundgaard qualified with him in eighth place, just 0.03 seconds slower.
Jack Harvey qualified ninth, ahead of the fastest of Andretti Autosport cars Ramen Grosjean, McLaughlin and veteran Graham Rahal.
There were many Indy 500 winners and champions who couldn’t even secure a place in the top 12.
The most notable of the missing were Scott Dixon, who is buried in the pack, Coltan Hertha, Alexander Rossi and Marcus Erickson could not pass.
Two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato has just missed, he starts with 13th next to Herta.
The winner of the Indianapolis Road Course 12 months ago Rinus Vicky was the fastest on hard tires, but the pace has not been translated to soft, he starts from 15th next to a disappointed Rossi.
Next came rookie Devlin DeFrancesco and former Formula One driver Eriksson. Line 10 contains both Meyer Shank Racing drivers Helio Castroneves, who start ahead of Simon Pagno.
Six-time champion Dixon starts out of the top 20, in the 21ststreet ahead of Kyle Kirkwood, Juan Pablo Manto, David Malukas, Tatiana Calderon, Dalton Kelet, and former NASCAR champion Jimmy Johnson completes the field.
Watch the race live Stan Sports tomorrow exclusively live from 5.00 am on AEST.
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https://autoaction.com.au/2022/05/14/power-takes-pole-mclaughlin-outside-of-top-10
