Road America IndyCar: Herta beats Rossi, scores first pole

The Harding Steinbrenner Racing-Honda driver, 19 years and 83 days old, lapped the 4.014-mile course in 1min42.9920sec, edging Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Alexander Rossi by 0.1773sec. Herta chose to run two hot laps on one set of tires in the Firestone Fast Six shootout, whereas his closest opponents, Rossi and Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power, took on two used sets in the course of the eight-minute session, running one hot lap on each.

Chevrolet, which has appeared somewhat outgunned this weekend, will nonetheless fill out Row 2, as Power will be joined by teammate and championship leader Josef Newgarden, who was 0.6sec off Herta’s fastest.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda team made an excellent comeback from its struggles in practice, with Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato locking out Row 3.

Sebastien Bourdais’ Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda will start seventh after not quite being in the hunt so far this weekend, and he will line up beside Spencer Pigot’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.

James Hinchcliffe qualified ninth in the #5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, edging Marco Andretti by just 0.0131sec who was a tenth quicker than Ed Jones in the second ECR car.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was fast enough to make it through Q1 Group 1 but from Turn 12 on his final lap his car was trailing smoke and he pitted with an apparently expired Honda, so was left unable to compete in Q2. Ganassi’s misery was doubled by rookie Felix Rosenqvist failing to progress from Q1 Group 2.

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay was the most surprising elimination in Q1, because he had been fast in practice, but he got caught up behind Bourdais on an out lap, and then had a very loose moment through Turn 3 on his next attempt at a flyer.

Penske’s latest Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud lost time on what should have been his best lap when he ran wide at Turn 7, and he failed to advance from Q1 by 0.03sec, and will line up 16^th.

Santino Ferrucci was eliminated in Q1 when his car slowed as he came up the pit straight and he came to a halt at pit exit, but pulled off and onto the grass.

GRID ORDER:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	1'42.9920		140.306
2	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'43.1693	0.1773	140.065
3	Will Power	Team Penske	1'43.3749	0.3829	139.786
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'43.6036	0.6116	139.478
5	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'43.8076	0.8156	139.204
6	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'43.8790	0.8870	139.108
7	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1'43.2989	0.3069	139.889
8	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'43.3083	0.3163	139.876
9	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'43.3814	0.3894	139.778
10	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1'43.3945	0.4025	139.760
11	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'43.5162	0.5242	139.596
12	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	No Time		No Speed
13	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1'43.6061	0.6141	139.474
14	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1'43.4488	0.4568	139.686
15	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'43.6980	0.7060	139.351
16	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'43.4764	0.4844	139.649
17	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'43.8913	0.8993	139.092
18	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'43.5038	0.5118	139.612
19	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM	1'44.6179	1.6259	138.126
20	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'43.8570	0.8650	139.137
21	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1'49.3060	6.3140	132.201
22	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'43.8745	0.8825	139.114
23	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'44.4183	1.4263	138.390
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