Simon Pagenaud streaks towards turn 13 during qualifications for race 1 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit at Belle Isle Park. Photo by Chris Owens
Simon Pagenaud resumed his assault on the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, capturing the Verizon P1 Award today to put him on pole position for the first race of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit.
Pagenaud’s fast lap in the Firestone Fast Six, the last of three rounds of knockout qualifying on the 2.35-mile Raceway at Belle Isle Park temporary street course, was a crisp 1 minute, 14.9166 seconds (112.926 mph) in the No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevrolet. He edged teammate Helio Castroneves by 0.0119 of a second and led a Team Penske sweep of the first three qualifying positions at the event that team owner Roger Penske operates.
“I knew the car would be good here because of the way it was in Long Beach (where he qualified third and won the April 17 race),” said Pagenaud, whose first of seven career Indy car wins came at Belle Isle in 2013. “Just great that we could extract the lap time out of it.”
“Obviously there was a bit of strategy on our side with the Firestone tires,” he added. “We chose to go on the black Firestone tires (in the Firestone Fast Six). They’re working really well for us and it paid off, so I’m really, really delighted.”
Pagenaud, who had a three-race winning streak snapped when he finished 19th in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29, earned his fifth career Verizon IndyCar Series pole position and third this season. The 32-year-old Frenchman hasn’t started worse than third on any road or street course in 2016. He took a 57-point championship lead into this weekend, which features the only doubleheader on the 2016 schedule.
Castroneves, a three-time Belle Isle race winner, shattered the track record in the second segment of qualifying with a top lap of 1:14.6899 (113.268 mph) in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. It was more than 1.5 seconds speedier than the old track record established a year ago by Team Penske’s Will Power, but Castroneves couldn’t match the lap in the Firestone Fast Six and will go off second in Saturday’s race.
“I was supposed to do that track record on the last one, not the first one,” joked Castroneves, who earned the first of his 29 career Indy car wins on Belle Isle in 2000. “But at the end of the day, you don’t pick and choose. … At least starting on the front row is always good, so we’ll go get them tomorrow.”
Juan Pablo Montoya will start third in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet with a final-round lap of 1:15.5659 (111.955 mph). James Hinchcliffe, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 pole sitter in the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda, broke the Penske run up front by qualifying fourth (1:15.7708, 111.653 mph).
Row 3 will consist of Indy 500 runner-up Carlos Munoz in the No. 26 Magneti Marelli Honda (1:16.3897, 110.748 mph) and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (1:16.4613, 110.644 mph). Both are past Belle Isle winners, Munoz in the first race of last year’s Dual and Dixon in 2012 when a single race was run.
Twenty-two cars are slated to take the green flag Saturday. American Alexander Rossi, who won the Indianapolis 500 five days ago, will start 17th Saturday in the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Honda. The second race of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit takes place Sunday.
Verizon IndyCar Series
Belle Isle Park – Detroit, MI
Chevrolet Dual In Detroit Race 1 – June 3, 2016
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1. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 01:14.9166 (112.926)
2. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 01:14.9285 (112.908)
3. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 01:15.5659 (111.955)
4. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 01:15.7708 (111.653)
5. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 01:16.3897 (110.748)
6. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 01:16.4613 (110.644)
7. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 01:15.5508 (111.978)
8. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 01:15.6712 (111.799)
9. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:15.7142 (111.736)
10. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:15.7172 (111.732)
11. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:16.0998 (111.170)
12. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 01:16.2665 (110.927)
13. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 01:16.1087 (111.157)
14. (21) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:16.3154 (110.856)
15. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 01:16.2643 (110.930)
16. (18) Conor Daly, Honda, 01:16.6370 (110.391)
17. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:16.4512 (110.659)
18. (8) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 01:16.7138 (110.280)
19. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 01:16.4965 (110.593)
20. (19) Gabby Chaves, Honda, 01:16.9140 (109.993)
21. (20) Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, 01:17.6894 (108.895)
22. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 01:18.3918 (107.919)
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