Sato grabs Detroit Dual 2 pole

Takuma Sato captured the pole position for Sunday's second race at Belle Isle in a disjointed qualifying session that saw the first group barely have time to get in two hot laps.

Sato's lap of 1m13.673s in the Andretti Honda edged Graham Rahal's best of 1m13.810s in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda in a hotly contested second session on Sunday morning, with Sato besting the track record set by Rahal on Saturday. Ryan Hunter-Reay starts outside Row 1 in this afternoon's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with a lap of 1m15.283s in another Andretti Honda because he was quickest in the opening round that lost approximately eight of its 12 minutes to a red flag for Carlos Munoz, who tagged the Turn 2 wall early in the session.

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"I gave 100 percent, my car is great, I love this place," said Sato, whose last pole on a street course was here in 2014. 

"There was nothing left on the inches. I nearly hit the wall twice. But I was happy. I was confident. It's absolutely team credit. This is the best moment of my life. In terms of qualifying, oh, set the track record in this challenging track, it means a lot to me, and I'm very, very happy."

Hunter-Reay, who suffered through a miserable Saturday and wound up in 13th place, barely got up to speed when the green flag waved with 90 seconds remaining, but he pulled off the best lap of the group.

"We made the most of it on pretty cold tires," said the 2014 Indy 500 winner, who will be looking for his first win in two seasons. "I would have liked to have gotten into a rhythm to see what it would be like in the race but we'll just have to see what happens."

Rahal, who dominated Saturday's show by leading 55 of 70 laps and became the seventh different winner in seven starts in the 2017 Verizon IndyCar series, just missed making it back-to-back poles.

"We're happy with third, I've got a good car and we'll just see how things go in traffic," he said.

Three-time Detroit winner Helio Castroneves starts fourth in the Penske Chevy while the third row is comprised of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammates James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Alehsin as Honda swept five of the top six spots.

Will Power, who won last year's second race, lines up seventh and Scott Dixon starts eighth.

Munoz will start last in the 22-car field.