It was a wet and windy day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Verizon IndyCar Series final practice and qualification sessions, Friday.
With sprinkles of precipitation, 13-minutes into the 10am green flag practice was halted to assist Ryan Briscoe from the Turn 4 tire barrier. The Australian returned to the pits without a tow. The session remained green until the double red/checkered for a Mikhail Aleshin spin in Turn 6.
Following the 45-minute final practice, the Verizon IndyCar Series cars returned to the track at 2pm for knockout qualifying. The 25-car entry list was divided up into two sessions where the fast 6 of each would advance.
Advancing out of Group 1 were: #77 Pagenaud, #12 Power, #27 Hinchcliffe, #3 Castroneves, #17 Saavedra and #28 Hunter-Reay. Failing to qualify for the second round were Carlos Huertas, Marco Andretti, Frank Montagny Carlos Munoz, Josef Newgarden and Charlie Kimball.
Advancing out of Group 2 were: #2 Montoya, #11 Bourdais, #7 Aleshin, #9 Dixon, #10 Kanaan and #98 Hawksworth. Failing to qualify for the second round were Ryan Briscoe, Takuma Sato, Oriol Servia, Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, Mike Conway and Martin Plowman.
Following the Group 2 session, INDYCAR announced that they had penalized Mikhail Aleshin for interference (blocking) Sebastien Bourdais. Graham Rahal would advance due to the penalty.
The second round of qualifications got underway with the use of wet tires to due a downpour just minutes prior. The 10-minute session stayed green throughout with the following six drivers representing six teams advancing to the Firestone Fast Six: Jack Hawksworth, Will Power, Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud
Just one minuted into the Firestone Fast Six session the circuit was red flagged for rain. Following a 14-minuted delay, the session got under way with Ryan Hunter-Reay P1 with two minutes remaining. Exiting Turn 14 on one of his final laps, RHR backed his DW12 into the front stretch wall, ending the session. Due to causing the yellow, he would lose his fastest two laps. Sebastian Saavedra inherited the P1 position and when the checkered fell under yellow conditions, the 23-year-old Colombian became the pole winner for the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
“We definitely gave that one away," said Hunter-Reay. "It’s a fun track. Since we got here it’s been dry-wet-dry-wet. It was changing conditions and it was a lot of fun, but it ended the wrong way, so congrats to Saavedra – good job and good pace."
Starting Grid
1-Sebastian Saavedra
2-Jack Hawksworth
3-Ryan Hunter-Reay
4-Simon Pagenaud
5-Will Power
6-Scott Dixon
7-Sebastien Bourdais
8-Juan Pablo Montoya
9-Tony Kanaan
10-Helio Castroneves
11-James Hinchcliffe
12-Graham Rahal
13-Marco Andretti
14-Ryan Briscoe
15-Josef Newgarden
16-Takuma Sato
17-Carlos Huertas
18-Justin Wilson
19-Carlos Munoz
20-Martin Plowman
21-Frank Montagny
22-Oriol Servia
23-Charlie Kimball
24-Mike Conway
25-Mikhail Aleshin
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