Scott McLaughlin will start off the second row alongside his Indy 500-winning teammate Josef Newgarden for Monday morning’s IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix.
Scott Dixon progressed to the Fast Six for the 100th time in his career in this morning’s qualifying outing before securing grid five for the 100-lap, 164.5-mile race.
Marcus Armstrong failed to progress from the group stages and will start from 20th.
Andretti Global’s Colton Herta drove to his 12th career pole with a 1:00.5475-second flyer, topping reigning champion Alex Palou by 0.1520 seconds.
Newgarden was nearly three-tenths behind in third, with McLaughlin just shy of four-tenths off his teammate’s 1:00.9607.
Dixon was just 0.0561 seconds off his compatriot in fifth, with Kyle Kirkwood completing the top six after his best two laps were erased when he triggered a late red flag.
McLaughlin was the sole Kiwi to qualify in the opening group of Round 1 and went second fastest, behind only impressive rookie Theo Pourchaire.
Newgarden, Kirkwood, Will Power and Santino Ferrucci also progressed to the Top 12.
Palou led Christian Lundgaard in Group 2, with Colton Herta third, Marcus Ericsson fourth, Pato O’Ward fifth and Dixon sneaking through in sixth, just 0.0614 seconds to the good of Graham Rahal.
Armstrong’s 1:01.7406 effort was only good enough for tenth in the group.
The session’s first red flag came in Top 12 qualifying when O’Ward stopped at Turn 5 and stalled while trying to get out of the way of Kirkwood. Causing the interruption cost him his best two laps and relegated him to 12th on the grid.
Herta would top the time sheets from Kirkwood, Dixon, McLaughlin, Palou and Newgarden, with Pourchaire narrowly missing the cutoff in seventh.
Dixon’s progression made it the 100th time he has featured in the Firestone Fast Six.
McLaughlin set the early benchmark in the final shootout with a 1:01.3046 but was overcome by Herta, Newgarden and Palou.
Herta would better his time to take the lead with a 1:00.5475 effort before a red flag was required when Kirkwood stalled in the Turn 1 run-off, bringing a red flag.
Enough time remained for one lap on resumption, but no one would better their times on colder tyres, leaving Herta’s earlier effort as the pole-setting time from Palou, Newgarden, McLaughlin, Dixon and Kirkwood.
Coverage of the Detroit Grand Prix begins at 4.00 am on Monday (NZST) on Sky Sport 5.
