Long Beach GP – Qualifying: Castroneves a breath ahead of Montoya

It was under a radiant sun that Brazilian Helio Castroneves secured his 42nd pole position in North American single-seaters. He narrowly beat his teammate and IndyCar championship leader; the Colombian Montoya.

« The team worked really hard because we changed everything in the car last night », says Castroneves, « so congratulations to them. »

Dixon and Hunter-Reay lying in wait

Scott Dixon is the first non-Penske driver. He places his Ganassi-Chevrolet in third position ahead of the first Honda, driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay. The American, behind the wheel of his Andretti Autosport, does not seem to have been morally affected by his points penalty in the championship. He had caused an accident at the Grand Prix of Louisiana.

The trapped champion

Will Power was caught out by a red flag during the first phase of qualifying. The Australian did not have a good fast initial lap and was interrupted by a spin from Stefano Coletti. The session ended under a red flag, and no driver was able to improve their time. Coletti’s best lap was canceled, allowing Marco Andretti to break into the top 6, securing a spot in the second phase of qualifying.

Andretti is finally 10th. Will Power will start from a distant 18th place while Coletti will be 23rd and last on the grid.

Rocky withdrew

Rocky Moran Jr. broke his thumb during an off-track excursion in the second free practice session. He is being replaced on short notice at Dale Coyne Racing by his compatriot Conor Daly, who was seen in GP2 last year. This is Daly’s first street race in IndyCar. The 23-year-old driver had to borrow a seat from Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport) and only had one practice session to get accustomed to the car.

Daly will start 21st, just ahead of his teammate Francesco Dracone.

Bourdais’ record falls

Another track record, held by Sébastien Bourdais during the Champ Car era, fell this Saturday. Helio Castroneves’ pole position, in 1:06.6294, is 26 hundredths of a second faster than the time of 1:06.882 set by the Frenchman in 2006. Thanks to the performance gain of the new aerodynamic kits, it’s the second record of Bourdais to fall after the one in St Petersburg.

The result of the qualifiers before any potential penalties:

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