Texas IndyCar: Kimball takes pole, Honda dominates, Vautier stars
Charlie Kimball scored the first pole position of his 109-race IndyCar career when he led a Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda 1-2 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Kimball lapped the course at 222.364 and 222.747mph to set an average of 222.556 to beat de facto team leader Scott Dixon by 0.04mph, as Tony Kanaan and Max Chilton capped a great qualifying session for Ganassi with fourth and sixth respectively.
Alexander Rossi led the Andretti Autosport foursome with third fastest time, but arguably the star of the session was Tristan Vautier for Dale Coyne Racing-Honda. In the substitute role for Sebastien Bourdais, he set a 221.801mph over his two laps to grab fifth place.
Mikhail Aleshin lead the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda charge in seventh, with Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato in eighth.
Top Chevrolet runners were Will Power and Helio Castroneves in ninth and 10th, 1.3mph off top spot, and Power said his car was trimmed out as much as it could be.
Carlos Munoz did not participate in the session and will start 22nd.
Qualifying results:
Pos. | # | Driver | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 46.5861 | 222.556 | |
2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 46.5944 | 0.0083 | 222.516 |
3 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 46.6098 | 0.0237 | 222.442 |
4 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 46.7013 | 0.1152 | 222.007 |
5 | 18 | Tristan Vautier | 46.7445 | 0.1584 | 221.801 |
6 | 8 | Max Chilton | 46.7756 | 0.1895 | 221.654 |
7 | 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | 46.8105 | 0.2244 | 221.489 |
8 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 46.8171 | 0.2310 | 221.458 |
9 | 12 | Will Power | 46.8553 | 0.2692 | 221.277 |
10 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 46.8716 | 0.2855 | 221.200 |
11 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 46.9237 | 0.3376 | 220.954 |
12 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 46.9470 | 0.3609 | 220.845 |
13 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 46.9764 | 0.3903 | 220.707 |
14 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 47.0231 | 0.4370 | 220.487 |
15 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 47.0593 | 0.4732 | 220.318 |
16 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 47.1264 | 0.5403 | 220.004 |
17 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 47.1387 | 0.5526 | 219.947 |
18 | 21 | J.R. Hildebrand | 47.3512 | 0.7651 | 218.960 |
19 | 19 | Ed Jones | 47.7095 | 1.1234 | 217.315 |
20 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | 48.0976 | 1.5115 | 215.562 |
21 | 4 | Conor Daly | 48.1066 | 1.5205 | 215.521 |
22 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | no time |
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