GP of Indy polewinner Power savours IndyCar achievements more now

After the second practice session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course, 18 of the 27 cars finished within half a second of top spot, so small mistakes were expected to be plush in qualifying.

Power took pole in the Fast Six shootout by a mere 0.042s superiority of reigning champion Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing), while Power’s team-mate Josef Newgarden was only 0.025s remoter when in third.

It was Power’s sixth pole on the IMS road course, where he has moreover scored five wins, and the 64th of his US open-wheel career.

The 41-year-old Australian, who now lies just three overdue Mario Andretti in the all-time pole stakes, said that as the competition level has increased he relishes his pole positions more.

“Yes, I really, really enjoy them,” said the 2014 IndyCar champion, whose first pole came in the 2006 Champ Car round at Surfers Paradise.

“You don\'t plane know if you\'ll get flipside one. Any win or anything I get in this series now I finger very happy and happy to have got considering it\'s tough.

“Obviously, I\'m not 20 anymore either.

“You couldn\'t leave anything on the table. Any time you get a pole on this series these days, you\'ve washed-up a really good job.

“I think the team and everyone has put it together considering any time you are leaving anything on the table… one-tenth moves you a lot of spots.”

Pole sitter Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet, with team

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Drivers only have two sets of Firestone’s softer, red-sidewalled tyres to use in qualifying, so those who get through to the Fast Six (Q3) are running on used rubber.

It was therefore important not to take too much out of either set used in Q1 and Q2 to minimise the drop-off in Q3, predictable to be virtually three tenths.

Power managed to minimise this difference to 0.275s on his used reds in Q3, though admitted he wasn’t confident that he’d washed-up unbearable to write-up Palou.

“I did my wool weightier and put it all together and didn\'t know where it would stack up,” he said.

“I just knew it was not that far off my quickest time on new tyres.

“I thought it was a pretty good time to have washed-up on used tyres. So, yeah, it was a good lap.” 

Newgarden explained that he “felt a little bad” not to be on the front row having missed out by such a small margin.

“I finger like our car was capable of winning the pole,” said the two-time series champion.

“We literally missed it by half a tenth, so I\'ll put that on me. I did not get everything out of the car, and it was really capable.”