Herta, Honda Claim Portland Pole
PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- After leading practice on Friday, Honda-powered rookie Colton Herta again led the way today at Portland International Raceway today, claiming the pole on his final qualifying lap for Sunday's Grand Prix of Portland.
Advancing through the first two rounds of NTT IndyCar Series knockout qualifying, Herta trailed early-pace setter Will Power after all six final-round qualifiers made their initial laps. Exiting the pits with just over a minute remaining in the session, Herta posted a lap of 57.8111 seconds around the 1.9-mile PIR road course to edge Power by 19 one-thousandths of a second. Today's performance is the second IndyCar Series pole of the season for the 19-year-old rookie, with Herta's first pole having come on the Road America road course in June.
Defending series champion Scott Dixon will start third as Honda drivers claimed five of the top six starting positions. Dixon's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Felix Rosenqvist, qualified fifth. Making just his ninth road course start of the season, Jack Harvey will start fourth for Meyer Shank Racing. Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the Fast Six qualifiers for Andretti Autosport.
Television coverage of Sunday's Grand Prix of Portland, the 16(th) and next-to-last round of the 2019 season, begins at 3 p.m. EDT on NBC.
Colton Herta (Harding Steinbrenner Racing Honda) Pole qualifier, second pole of 2019 and second career IndyCar Series pole: "We always planned to do three-and-one [three laps on the Firestone primary 'Black' sidewall tires, and one lap on the softer compound 'Reds' in the final round of qualifying]. We didn't have it on the 'Blacks', I think we were like five-hundredths [of a second] off Will [Power]. Obviously, 'Reds' were the right choice and we pulled it off. It's always a good day when you can beat Will Power in the Fast Six [final qualifying]. Before I knew we won the pole position, I went on the radio and heard everyone cheering, so to find out that way was really cool. This is awesome."
NTT IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Portland
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Circuit: Portland International Raceway
(1.9-mile road course)
Portland, Oregon
2018 Winner: Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman
Lanigan Racing Honda) 102.971
mph average speed
Weather: Mostly sunny, warm, 82 degrees F
Top-12, Honda Qualifying Results:
Ps.
Driver
Team Manufacturer Best Time
Notes
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1.
Colton Herta-R
Harding Steinbrenner Racing
Honda 57.8111
122.302 mph average
2.
Will Power
Team Penske
Chevrolet 57.8303
+0.0192 seconds
3.
Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing
Honda 57.8355
Fast Six Final Qualifying
4.
Jack Harvey
Meyer Shank Racing
Honda 58.1008
Fast Six Final Qualifying
5.
Felix Rosenqvist-R
Chip Ganassi Racing
Honda 58.1620
Fast Six Final Qualifying
6.
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti Autosport
Honda 58.1823
Fast Six Final Qualifying
7.
Alexander Rossi
Andretti Autosport
Honda 57.8864
2nd Round Qualifying
8.
James Hinchcliffe
Arrow Schmidt Peterson
Honda 57.9994
2nd Round Qualifying
9.
Conor Daly
Arrow Schmidt Peterson
Honda 58.0192
2nd Round Qualifying
10.
Spencer Pigot
Ed Carpenter Racing
Chevrolet 58.0415
2nd Round Qualifying
11.
Zach Veach
Andretti Autosport
Honda 58.2149
2nd Round Qualifying
12.
Sebastien Bourdais
DCR with Vasser-Sullivan
Honda 58.3001
2nd Round Qualifying
Other Honda Results
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14.
Santino Ferrucci-R
Dale Coyne Racing
Honda 57.8476
1st Round, Group 2
15.
Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan
Honda 57.9648
1st Round, Group 1
16.
Marco Andretti
Andretti Autosport
Honda 57.8527
1st Round, Group 2
17.
Takuma Sato
Rahal Letterman Lanigan
Honda 57.9668
1st Round, Group 1
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SOURCE Honda Racing/HPD
