Bad weather forced the qualifying session for the second race of IndyCar’s Houston double-header to be abandoned.
Heavy rain fell immediately before the session was scheduled to start on Sunday morning. Series officials carried out several track inspections as the rain eased off, but the large amounts of standing water around the circuit finally forced the session to be called off.
Consequently, the grid for Sunday’s race will be determined by entrant points, meaning that Saturday race winner Scott Dixon will start from pole position for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, although he will not earn the usual bonus point.
“I think we probably would have liked to qualify,” he said. “It seems like Helio [Castroneves] is struggling a little bit more this weekend, so if we could have had that bit of separation on the grid like yesterday, it would have been nice.
“I think if we were at a typical road course it wouldn’t have been as much of an issue with this amount of rain, but as everyone knows, street courses tend to puddle a lot. Hopefully it clears and makes for a good day’s racing. It’s a lot cooler [than yesterday], and I’m not sure the start will be completely dry, but it should be pretty close, hopefully.”
The Brazilian will start alongside his title rival on the front row.
The weather conditions are forecast to improve in time for this afternoon’s race.
Pos Driver Team/Engine 1. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Honda 2. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 3. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 4. Marco Andretti Andretti/Chevy 5. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Chevy 6. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 7. Dario Franchitti Ganassi/Honda 8. Will Power Penske/Chevy 9. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Chevy10. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Honda11. Tony Kanaan KV/Chevy12. EJ Viso Andretti/Chevy13. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon/Chevy14. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda15. Simona de Silvestro KV/Chevy16. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda17. Mike Conway Coyne/Honda18. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda19. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy20. James Jakes Rahal/Honda21. Oriol Servia Panther/Chevy22. Tristan Vautier Schmidt/Honda23. Luca Filippi Barracuda/Honda24. Sebastian Saavedra Dragon/Chevy
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