Marco Andretti roars to first career street course pole for Detroit GP Race 1 - MotorSportsTalk

Marco Andretti blistered the second IndyCar qualifying session Saturday morning to take the pole for this afternoon’s Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Grand Prix Race 1 (3 p.m. ET) at Belle Isle Park.

Andretti roared to the top of the speed chart with an outstanding lap of 1:14.8514 at a speed of 113.024 mph, in the closing minute of the second qualifying session.

Andretti’s elapsed time was nearly a half-second quicker than Robert Wickens at (1:15.3267 at 112.311 mph) in the 12-minute session. It is Andretti’s career-best start on the 2.3-mile street course and his fifth career pole (first on a street course).

“I knew we just had to execute,” Andretti said. “I’ve wanted a street course pole for a while, so I’m really happy. Now, I immediately am switching my brain to try to win this race. We need a win.”

Andretti’s previous best start at Detroit was sixth, while his career-best finish has been second in 2015.

The two qualifying sessions set the field for today’s race in a unique way. The first session determined those in even-numbered positions in the race, while the second session determined the those in odd-numbered spots in the race.

Ergo, even though Scott Dixon was fastest in the first session, he will start today’s race from the outside of the front row. Even so, it was a good morning for Andretti Autosport, which qualified three of its four drivers entered in the race in the top five spots.

Robert Wickens will start third.

“It was good,” Wickens said of his qualifying effort. “We were really quick on the blacks (tires). Great job by the team. We should be pretty good in the race.”

Drivers in both sessions had to run at least one lap each during qualifying on both black and red Firestone tires.

Here’s the starting lineup:

Row 1: Marco Andretti and Scott Dixon

Row 2: Robert Wickens and Alexander Rossi

Row 3: Ryan Hunter-Reay and Indy 500 winner Will Power

Row 4: Takuma Sato and teammate Graham Rahal

Row 5: James Hinchcliffe and Max Chilton

Row 6: Ed Jones and Spencer Pigot

Row 7: Simon Pagenaud and teammate Josef Newgarden

Row 8: Tony Kanaan and Zach Veach

Row 9: Sebastien Bourdais and Santino Ferrucci

Row 10: Gabby Chaves and Jordan King

Row 11: Matheus Leist and Charlie Kimball

Row 12: Rene Binder

Here are results of the two qualifying sessions:

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.

POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.