Barber IndyCar: O’Ward beats Rossi to pole

The Mexican youngster embarking on only his second full season in the NTT IndyCar Series, lapped the beautiful 2.38-mile course in Alabama in a record-breaking 65.8479sec to edge Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport-Honda by just 0.0698sec.

Third fastest went to series sophomore Alex Palou in his first qualifying run for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, while four-time Barber polesitter Will Power was top Team Penske driver in fourth.

Six-time and reigning champion Scott Dixon, who is seeking his first Barber win, will line up fifth, alongside teammate Marcus Ericsson, making it three Ganassi cars in the first three rows.

High-profile rookies Romain Grosjean, Scott McLaughlin and Jimmie Johnson will line up seventh, 12th and 22nd respectively (see below).

Firestone Fast Six

Q2

All 12 drivers started the session on primaries, with Herta taking top spot on the blacks with a 66.4sec lap, a hair ahead of O’Ward and Dixon.

Ex-F1 star Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda laid down a 65.7643sec, but was quickly pushed aside by O’Ward with a 65.5. Palou went faster still, but O’Ward’s next lap bumped him down, while a late effort from Power saw the 2014 champ jump to P2.

Ericsson and Dixon underlined just how strong the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda package is with 4-5-6, but Power’s late flyer prevented the still impressive Grosjean from making it into the Firestone Fast Six shootout.

Also locked out of the final session were three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden, Colton Herta (Andretti), Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy), Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing and Grosjean’s fellow debutant, Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske-Chevrolet. McLaughlin was at a disadvantage anyway, having used both his sets of fresh reds in Q1 (see below).

Q1 Group 2

The second Q1 session was first disrupted by James Hinchcliffe understeering off the track into the tire wall at Turn 5, bringing out the red flag. That pause sent everyone to the pits to take on Firestone alternates.

Both Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda and Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet quickly got down to 66.0sec, O’Ward saving a huge moment at the top of the crest between Turns 13 and 14.

However, his teammate Felix Rosenqvist dropped it at the final turn and got his best time deleted.

Thus O’Ward, Grosjean, Conor Daly of ECR-Chevrolet, Alexander Rossi (FP2 pacesetter for Andretti Autosport-Honda), Scott Dixon (Ganassi) and Colton Herta (Andretti) got through to Q2.

Q1 Group 1

Rookies McLaughlin and Jimmie Johnson (Ganassi), along with Dalton Kellett (AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy) and Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda), went out on Firestone’s softer alternate straight away, and McLaughlin was first to duck under the 67sec mark with a 66.7183sec. But it didn’t take long for the remainder to dive into the pits to grab their reds. Ericsson then hit the front until usurped by Ganassi teammate Palou who cut into the 65s with a 65.9032sec.

Power almost matched him with a 65.9191, while teammates Josef Newgarden and McLaughlin also made it through along with Ericsson, and Harvey. McLaughlin’s manual starter failed when he stopped for a second set of reds, so the neighboring crew of Ed Carpenter Racing lent Penske a starter to get him fired up

Among those failing to make it through were three previous Barber winners – Simon Pagenaud (Penske), Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) and Sato.

Johnson was 1.8sec off the pace but managed to outqualify Kellett.