INDYCAR

MARCO ANDRETTI TOOK POLE POSITION FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500, ALONSO WILL START 26TH

Published

2 years ago

16/08/2020

FATI'S F1 writer

MARCO ANDRETTI TOOK POLE POSITION FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 ALONSO WILL START 26TH

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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.

“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.

“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