Sebastien Bourdais captured the pole position for the Battle at the Bricks, putting the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R atop the starting grid for the six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Bourdais turned a 1-minute, 14.592-second lap around the track’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course for his seventh pole position.
A nine-time starter in the Indianapolis 500, Bourdais earned his first pole after 22 qualifying attempts across various series at IMS.
STARTING GRID: Click here for the Battle at the Bricks starting grid l Click here by rows l Click here by car number
“Obviously it’s always great to be on pole, and it’s a very nice feeling to do it at the home base of Chip Ganassi Racing,” Bourdais said of his team, which is based in Indianapolis. “It helps us to stay alive in the championship fight, which is obviously a long shot. But we live to fight another day, and that’s very much the spirit we have for the rest of the season. That Cadillac was quite good today.”
Bourdais and co-driver Renger van der Zande are ranked third in the championship standings behind the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s that finished 1-2 last year at Indy in a two-hour, 40-minute race.
With a race that will be more than twice as long, a 56-car field and a forecast for rain Sunday, Bourdais expects much more chaos Sunday.
“If the forecast holds true and it’s on and off rain, it’s going to be difficult,” Bourdais said. “Because the wet tire is too soft and doesn’t transition, and the hard tire is really undriveable in variable conditions. So, it will be exciting.
“There’s a survival period that comes into play (in a six-hour race). You kind of have four hours of, ‘Let’s make sure that we got all the bits on the car and not do anything stupid to take yourself out of contention.’ In the 2-hour, 40-minute race, the first stint it’s more about positioning yourself and then go, go, go. I think for all of us, it’ll be the single biggest challenge to not hit anyone and not get hit. I think whoever manages to do that the most appropriately will definitely have the best chance of ending up on top.”
In other categories:
—LMP2: Nick Boulle won his first career IMSA pole position, qualifying first by nearly a half-second in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 that he will be co-driving with Tom Dillmann and Jakub Smiechowski.
—GTD Pro: The No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner moved up to the pole position after the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R was sent from first in class to the rear after a technical violation for ground clearance.
—GTD: Mikael Grenier captured the pole position for the second time in three races, qualifying first in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he co-drives with Kenton Koch and Mike Skeen.
IMSA BATTLE AT THE BRICKS QUALIFYING
Starting lineup
Starting lineup by car number
Results
Results by class
Fastest lap by driver
Fastest lap by driver after qualifying
Fastest lap by driver and class after qualifying
Best sector times
Fastest lap sequence
Time cards
Weather report
PRACTICE RESULTS: Session I l Session II
