Rookie Devlin DeFrancesco did a superb job to clock a 179.531mph average in his Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda to sit top after the first seven cars had run, continuing his fine work from the practice session and last week’s test for the rookies.
Then Takuma Sato of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda turned a 180.476mph lap followed by a 179.623mph to give him the first average to crack the 180mph barrier, although he admitted he’d had to work hard to contain his car’s handling traits. Teammate David Malukas in the Coyne with HMD car couldn’t match his teammate, nor beat fellow rookie DeFrancesco, but he delivered a solid run to claim third (at the time).
Romain Grosjean, like Sato, ran a 180mph opening lap and high 179 second lap, to slot into second, although the Frenchman will have to take a nine-place grid drop due to an early fifth engine change.
While he was able to shade teammate DeFrancesco, Colton Herta could not after having a wiggle out of Turn 3 and having to breathe the throttle. His issues were mild compared with Felix Rosenqvist who looped his car into a spin exiting Turn 2, but he remarkably kept the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet off the outside SAFER barrier, and only gently rolled backward into the inside tire wall. Rosenqvist, a potential polesitter, will thus start the race from the back of the 26-car grid.
Alexander Rossi slotted into the Andretti Autosport cluster, behind Grosjean and DeFrancesco but ahead of Herta.
Then the second AMSP car set a 179.958 followed by a 180.650, beating Sato’s average by 0.25mph with an average of 180.303mph, but his time at the top didn’t last long as the very next car out, Scott McLaughlin’s Penske-Chevrolet delivered two 181mph laps resulting in an average of 181.406mph.
Next out was Alex Palou, and his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda also set two 181mph laps to claim second, but then Josef Newgarden in the #2 Penske was 180.747mph on the first lap – with a self confessed ‘goof’ downchange at Turn 3, – but then ran a remarkable 182.520mph on his second lap.
Remarkably, Marcus Ericsson produced a 181.901 and 182.239 to grab top spot with a 182.070mph average, a target that teammate Scott Dixon tried and failed to eclipse.
However, Power set the only 182mph opening lap – 182.366 – and his second lap was a 183.089 – an average of 182.727mph. That landed his fourth pole position of the season, and the 67th of his career.
Jack Harvey will take the green as the highest placed Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda driver, while Conor Daly was by far the fastest of the three Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolets.
The second session will start 45mins early for nine cars who will attempt to clean and lay rubber on the higher line. All 26 cars will be on track from 6.45pm local (Central) time.
