Sunday Qualification – Pursuit of the Pole 2:45 PM….

Alexander Rossi fastest
Alexander Rossi fastest

Scott Dixon experienced a motor failure during morning practice, and will be installing his race motor for qualification. The idea for most teams is to change the motor after qualifications so they have a fresh motor for the race, but Dixon's will have a few more miles on it.

Topping the speed chart this morning was rookie Alexander Rossi. We caught up with Rossi this morning, and asked him about his run last weekend. Yes, they discovered some things. Yes, he has all of the confidence that we'd normally expect from a veteran. Yes, you really should keep an eye on him if you have an office pool. The list of F1 drivers that never figured out starts with Ascari and Fangio, so for a F1 person to figure this much out this quickly indicates a rare level of natural talent.

Not that it matters — all 33 cars will start next Sunday — but the provisional back row currently looks like Pogo, Chilton and Mann. All three found the wall this week.

We also caught up with Sebastien Bourdais prior to qualification. He thought that everyone in this second group was a little lost, with most teams running backwards. He didn't seem to have a good idea of what he had for the effort today.

Tim Wohlford and Lucille Dust, reporting from IMS

Rank Car Driver Name Make Time Speed Diff Gap Best Lap Total Laps
1 98 Rossi, Alexander (R) HONDA 00:39.1195 230.064 –.—- –.—- 2 19
2 21 Newgarden, Josef CHEVY 00:39.1464 229.906 0.0269 0.0269 2 5
3 12 Power, Will CHEVY 00:39.1650 229.797 0.0455 0.0186 3 15
4 2 Montoya, Juan Pablo CHEVY 00:39.1793 229.713 0.0598 0.0143 10 11
5 9 Dixon, Scott CHEVY 00:39.2156 229.501 0.0961 0.0363 8 10
6 14 Sato, Takuma HONDA 00:39.2240 229.451 0.1045 0.0084 4 13
7 10 Kanaan, Tony CHEVY 00:39.2599 229.242 0.1404 0.0359 2 16
8 6 Hildebrand, JR CHEVY 00:39.2602 229.240 0.1407 0.0003 4 6
9 20 Carpenter, Ed CHEVY 00:39.2631 229.223 0.1436 0.0029 4 6
10 29 Bell, Townsend HONDA 00:39.2982 229.018 0.1787 0.0351 3 7
11 77 Servia, Oriol HONDA 00:39.3382 228.785 0.2187 0.0400 12 15
12 42 Kimball, Charlie CHEVY 00:39.3460 228.740 0.2265 0.0078 13 20
13 3 Castroneves, Helio CHEVY 00:39.3878 228.497 0.2683 0.0418 14 17
14 61 Brabham, Matt (R) CHEVY 00:39.3901 228.484 0.2706 0.0023 4 12
15 11 Bourdais, Sebastien CHEVY 00:39.4320 228.241 0.3125 0.0419 2 12
16 19 Chaves, Gabby HONDA 00:39.4512 228.130 0.3317 0.0192 11 13
17 18 Daly, Conor HONDA 00:39.4594 228.083 0.3399 0.0082 3 17
18 27 Andretti, Marco HONDA 00:39.4768 227.982 0.3573 0.0174 7 10
19 24 Karam, Sage CHEVY 00:39.4994 227.852 0.3799 0.0226 6 10
20 35 Tagliani, Alex HONDA 00:39.5161 227.755 0.3966 0.0167 15 15
21 15 Rahal, Graham HONDA 00:39.5326 227.660 0.4131 0.0165 14 17
22 26 Munoz, Carlos HONDA 00:39.5912 227.323 0.4717 0.0586 3 8
23 88 Clauson, Bryan HONDA 00:39.6393 227.047 0.5198 0.0481 4 11
24 25 Wilson, Stefan (R) CHEVY 00:39.6469 227.004 0.5274 0.0076 4 11
25 4 Lazier, Buddy CHEVY 00:39.6472 227.002 0.5277 0.0003 3 16
26 41 Hawksworth, Jack HONDA 00:39.6739 226.849 0.5544 0.0267 4 14
27 16 Pigot, Spencer (R) HONDA 00:39.7245 226.560 0.6050 0.0506 9 17
28 8T Chilton, Max (R) CHEVY 00:39.8628 225.774 0.7433 0.1383 8 16
29 28 Hunter-Reay, Ryan HONDA 00:40.4564 222.462 1.3369 0.5936 3 3
30 63 Mann, Pippa HONDA 00:59.4881 151.291 20.3686 19.0317 6 6