IndyCar Detroit: Palou takes pole, Andretti cars hit the wall

Having raced on nearby Belle Isle Island from 1992, Penske Entertainment Corp revived the downtown circuit for the IndyCar event with a short and sharp 1.7-mile, nine-turn layout in the shadow of the General Motors Renaissance Center.

Following up his Indianapolis 500 pole, Palou set the early pace in the Fast Six shootout with 1m03.7423s but was soon toppled by Team Penske’s Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and then his team-mate Scott McLaughlin with 1m02.4743s.

On his second run, Palou snatched P1 back with 1m01.8592s, with first Romain Grosjean (Andretti Autosport) and then McLaughlin grabbing P2 with 1m02.1592s, which was three tenths off pole.

Behind Grosjean, who brushed the wall off Turn 2 but continued, Scott Dixon will start fourth for Ganassi, ahead of Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi).

Ericsson overshot Turn 8 early on and was almost collected by Grosjean as he spun around to extricate himself from the runoff.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

Fast 12 qualifying

In the second round of qualifying, Palou set the pace with 1m01.6390s from Grosjean, Ericsson, Newgarden, McLaughlin and Dixon.

Failing to progress were Team Penske’s Will Power, Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing), Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) and team-mate Pato O’Ward, and rookie Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi).

Long Beach GP winner Kyle Kirkwood, who topped his qualifying group, ripped the left-front corner of his Andretti Autosport car off on the inside of Turn 7. He will start 12^th.

“I’m disappointed, that was a pole-winning car, no doubt,” he said. “I touched that wall way harder in practice, it was just the angle I hit. It’s just awful, my mistake.”

Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by: Art Fleischmann)

Group stage qualifying

In Group 1, Armstrong set the pace with 1m01.8688s, three tenths clear of Grosjean, Palou, Power, Pagenaud and Rosenqvist.

Alexander Rossi was pushed out by McLaren team-mate Rosenqvist in the final seconds by 0.03s to consign him to 13^th, failing to progress along with Conor Daly, who spun his Ed Carpenter Racing car, and Devlin DeFrancesco, whose Andretti team did a great job to rebuild his car after a big practice crash this morning.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen will start 19^th, having beaten David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing), Helio Castroneves – who spun his MSR entry exiting Turn 2 – and Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing).

In Group 2, Kirkwood set the pace, remarkably on primary tires, at 1m01.5305s ahead of McLaughlin, O’Ward, Dixon, Ericsson and Newgarden.

Rinus VeeKay (ECR) was pushed out by 0.001s and will start 14^th, ahead of Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Christian Lundgaard – who smashed his front-left corner of his RLL car also at Turn 7 – Agustin Canapino (JHR) and Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing).

Colton Herta spanked the Turn 7 wall on his initial primary-tired run, breaking his suspension, and he will start down in 24th, only outpacing Sting Ray Robb (Coyne) and Graham Rahal (RLL).

IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix starting grid

Pos	Nº	Driver	Car/Engine	Time	Gap
1	10	Alex Palou	Dallara/Honda	1'01.8592
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.1592	0.3000
3	28	Romain Grosjean	Dallara/Honda	1'02.2896	0.4304
4	9	Scott Dixon	Dallara/Honda	1'02.4272	0.5680
5	2	Josef Newgarden	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.5223	0.6631
6	8	Marcus Ericsson	Dallara/Honda	1'02.6184	0.7592
7	12	Will Power	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.1817	0.3225
8	60	Simon Pagenaud	Dallara/Honda	1'02.1860	0.3268
9	6	Felix Rosenqvist	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.1937	0.3345
10	5	Patricio O'Ward	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.2564	0.3972
11	11	Marcus Armstrong	Dallara/Honda	1'02.2958	0.4366
12	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Dallara/Honda	1'04.6075	2.7483
13	7	Alexander Rossi	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.5714	0.7122
14	21	R.van Kalmthout	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.1911	0.3319
15	20	Conor Daly	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.9522	1.0930
16	77	Callum Ilott	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.2644	0.4052
17	29	D.Defrancesco	Dallara/Honda	1'03.0017	1.1425
18	45	C.Lundgaard	Dallara/Honda	1'02.6495	0.7903
19	55	B.Pedersen	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'03.1599	1.3007
20	78	Agustín Canapino	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.9071	1.0479
21	18	David Malukas	Dallara/Honda	1'03.2126	1.3534
22	14	Santino Ferrucci	Dallara/Chevrolet	1'02.9589	1.0997
23	06	H.Castroneves	Dallara/Honda	1'03.3879	1.5287
24	26	Colton Herta	Dallara/Honda	1'03.4165	1.5573
25	30	Jack Harvey	Dallara/Honda	1'03.7728	1.9136
26	51	Sting Ray Robb	Dallara/Honda	1'03.7496	1.8904
27	15	Graham Rahal	Dallara/Honda	1'03.8663	2.0071