Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport w / Marco Andretti & Curb-Agajanian – Honda) took pole position in the 2020 edition of the Indianapolis 500 at the end of Fast 9, with his four best laps completed at 371.867 km / h on average.
Marco Andretti took pole position for the indianapolis 500, Alonso 26TH – Andretti had set the fastest average speed on Saturday as drivers competed to reach the ‘Fast Nine’ Sunday qualifying session, and he backed up his early pace when it counted on Sunday.
Racing for the Andretti Autosport outfit, a team owned by his father Michael Andretti, Marco said: “For me, I started feeling it on lap two, which meant it was going to be a long couple of laps, so laps three and four were sketchy.”
2020 Indianapolis 500 grid
Position
Driver
Speed (kph)
1
Marco Andretti
371.867
2
Scott Dixon
371.84
3
Takuma Sato
371.315
4
Rinus VeeKay
371.281
5
Ryan Hunter_reay
371.191
6
James Hinchcliffe
369.939
7
Alex Palou
369.627
8
Graham Rahal
369.15
9
Alexander Rossi
368.915
10
Colton Herta
371.395
11
Marcus Ericsson
371.059
12
Spencer Pigot
371.016
13
Josef Newgarden
370.625
14
Felix Rosenqvist
370.557
15
Pato O’Ward
370.491
16
Ed Carpenter
370.488
17
Zach Veach
370.085
18
Conor Daly
370.076
19
Santino Ferrucci
370.026
20
Jack Harvey
369.925
21
Oliver Askew
369.762
22
Will Power
369.667
23
Tony Kanaan
368.787
24
Dalton Kellett
368.346
25
Simon Pagenaud
368.275
26
Fernando Alonso
368.165
27
James Davison
368.132
28
Helio Castroneves
367.53
29
Charlie Kimball
366.54
30
Max Chilton
365.808
31
Sage Karam
365.48
32
JR Hildebrand
364.26
33
Ben Hanley
358.749
The Indy 500 itself will take place in one week on August 23, and Andretti reflected on his chances of race day victory adding: “Clean air is always good here, speed is always good here and man, horsepower is so cool isn’t it?
“It makes everything so much easier and Honda just did a wonderful job.
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“Our team rolled out so fast. I’m just so excited.”
Michael Andretti added: “Fantastic. I mean it was unbelievable. The car was so loose and he just didn’t take his foot off the throttle.
“After the first three guys went I was like ‘we don’t have a shot’ but he kept it in there. He did a hell of a job.”
Three time pole sitter and the 2008 race winner Scott Dixon lines up in the middle of row one in second position.
Positions on the grid are decided by calculating a drivers average speed across four laps of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Andretti took pole by just 0.017 miles per hour with an average speed of 231.068mph.
Second place Dixon said: “It’s crazy. A gust of wind can change that in a moment, but I’m really happy for Marco.
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“They’ve had a solid month and he deserves this. I know what this place means to his family and him especially and it’s good to see him keeping under this pressure to make it work.
“Hopefully we can reverse this position in a weeks time but really proud of the PNC Bank [Chip Ganassi Racing] number nine crew.”
Fernando Alonso, making his third attempt to win the race, will start 26th.
MARCO ANDRETTI TOOK POLE POSITION FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 ALONSO WILL START 26TH MARCO ANDRETTI TOOK POLE POSITION FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 ALONSO WILL START 26TH
