Dixon Beats Out Herta To Indy 500 Pole
Calum Gill 21:30 23/05/2021
Scott Dixon has taken pole position for next weekend's Indianapolis 500, beating out Colton Herta to take his 4th pole at the brickyard.
The Chip Ganassi driver's average lap speed of 231.685 mph was enough to qualify ahead of Andretti Autosport's Herta by 0.030 mph, making it a Honda 1-2. Rinus VeeKay, who won the GMR Grand Prix last weekend on the Indy road course, will make up the front row for the Ed Carpenter team. Ed Carpenter himself qualified fourth, being the only Chevrolet runner to get into the fast nine, and therefore being the highest Chevy starter.
Tony Kanaan - driving the ovals in place of Jimmie Johnson this year at Ganassi - couldn’t depose the two Ed Carpenter Racing cars but he and Álex Palou made sure it was four Ganassi cars in the top six. Palou had crashed heavily trying to improve his time in qualifying yesterday but made the ‘Fast Nine’ anyway. His car was repaired by 9.30pm on Saturday and he rewarded his team by bringing them doughnuts this morning. The Spaniard will start in 6th.
Ryan Hunter-Reay had a tricky week of practice but has been on form in qualifying trim to take seventh for Andretti, ahead of three time event winner Hélio Castroneves in his first 500 for new team Meyer Shank Racing - which receives engineering support from Andretti. Marcus Ericsson was the first car to run and clearly did not have ideal conditions as he was ninth quickest for Ganassi.
Earlier on, in the 'last chance' session, Sage Karam, 2018 winner Will Power and Simona del Silvestro secured their places on the back row, with Charlie Kimball and R.C. Enerson failing to qualify for the legendary race.
2021 Indianapolis 500 First 3 Rows
Row 1
1. Scott Dixon (231.685 mph)
2. Colton Herta (231.655 mph)
3. Rinus Veekay (231.511 mph
Row 2
4. Ed Carpenter (231.504 mph)
5. Tony Kanaan (231.032 mph)
6. Álex Palou (230.616mph)
Row 3
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay (230.499 mph)
8. Hélio Castroneves (230.355 mph)
9. Marcus Ericsson (230.355 mph)
