|
Sunday, 17 April 2011 05:00 |
|
Page 1 of 2  Will Power will take his third consecutive PEAK Performance Pole Award of the young IZOD IndyCar Series season and third in a row on the Long Beach street circuit into the 37th edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 17.
The driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske car recorded a quick lap of 1 minute, 9.0649 seconds with 2'30 left in the Firestone Fast Six to bump Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2010 race winner, who set the fast time of 1'09.1409 a lap earlier in the #28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car.
"That was definitely a tough one. I know how fast Hunter Reay is around here from the race last year. He is bloody hard to beat. It's going to be a tough race, but qualifying the way we did I think we put ourselves in the best possible position," said Power, who's finished second and third the past two years in the 85 lap race.
Seven different teams are represented in the first five rows, which will keep the pressure on Power from the green flag.
Hunter-Reay's Andretti Autosport team-mate Mike Conway, driving the #27 Window World Cares car, will share Row 2 with Oriol Servia in the #2 Telemundo Newman/Haas Racing car.
It was the second Firestone Fast Six appearance this season for Conway, who started 16th at Long Beach last April, and Servia.
Also on April 16, Esteban Guerrieri in the #7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car recorded a quick lap of 1'14.0537 late in the 60 minute session to earn the Sunoco Pole Award for the 45 lap Firestone Indy Lights race on the Long Beach street circuit.
Peter Dempsey, driving the #36 Pulse/02 Racing car, also will start on the front row. It was the second pole victory for Guerrieri.
PEAK PERFORMANCE POLE QUALIFYING NOTES:
- Will Power claimed his third pole of 2011 and the 18th pole of his Indy car career. It is his third consecutive pole to start the season after he claimed the PEAK Performance Pole Award at St. Petersburg and Barber
- This is Will Power's third consecutive pole at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
- Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified second. He also qualified second in 2010, when he won the race.
- Mike Conway qualified third, it is his best start at Long Beach. His previous best start was 16th.
- James Hinchcliffe was the highest qualified Sunoco Rookie of the Year Candidate qualifying 11th.
- Neither car from Target Chip Ganassi Racing made the Firestone Fast Six as Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon qualified seventh and eighth. The last time neither car qualified for Firestone Fast Six was here in Long Beach in 2010.
PEAK PERFORMANCE POLE QUALIFYING RESULTS:
| Pos. |
N° |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
Speed |
| 1. |
12 |
Will Power |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.0649 |
102.582 |
| 2. |
28 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.1409 |
102.469 |
| 3. |
27 |
Mike Conway |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.6414 |
101.733 |
| 4. |
2 |
Oriol Servia |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.6828 |
101.672 |
| 5. |
22 |
Justin Wilson |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.8097 |
101.487 |
| 6. |
3 |
Helio Castroneves |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.8423 |
101.440 |
| 7. |
10 |
Dario Franchitti |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.6037 |
101.788 |
| 8. |
9 |
Scott Dixon |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.6385 |
101.737 |
| 9. |
77 |
Alex Tagliani |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.6497 |
101.720 |
| 10. |
82 |
Tony Kanaan |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.7352 |
101.596 |
| 11. |
06 |
James Hinchcliffe |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.8122 |
101.484 |
| 12. |
6 |
Ryan Briscoe |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.8243 |
101.466 |
| 13. |
14 |
Vitor Meira |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.1010 |
101.066 |
| 14. |
26 |
Marco Andretti |
Dallara-Honda |
1'09.9400 |
101.298 |
| 15. |
34 |
Sebastian Saavedra |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.1146 |
101.046 |
| 16. |
38 |
Graham Rahal |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.5883 |
100.368 |
| 17. |
59 |
EJ Viso |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.1465 |
101.000 |
| 18. |
78 |
Simona de Silvestro |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.6407 |
100.293 |
| 19. |
17 |
Raphael Matos |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.3477 |
100.711 |
| 20. |
7 |
Danica Patrick |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.7836 |
100.091 |
| 21. |
19 |
Sebastien Bourdais |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.8050 |
100.061 |
| 22. |
5 |
Takuma Sato |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.8197 |
100.040 |
| 23. |
18 |
James Jakes |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.8592 |
99.984 |
| 24. |
83 |
Charlie Kimball |
Dallara-Honda |
1'10.8672 |
99.973 |
| 25. |
8 |
Paul Tracy |
Dallara-Honda |
1'11.0249 |
99.751 |
| 26. |
24 |
Ana Beatriz |
Dallara-Honda |
1'11.0341 |
99.738 |
| 27. |
4 |
JR Hildebrand |
Dallara-Honda |
1'11.4916 |
99.100 |
|
NEWS by SERIES 
Please show support
