Power leads Penske to pole position for both Indy races in Iowa

Will Power will start from the pole-position of both Indy races in Iowa. In the curious qualifying session held on Saturday (23), the Australian Penske driver, second in the championship, scored 18s060 and 18s079, and will start in the position of honor of the races that take place this Saturday and Sunday.

Penske has more reason to smile with the presence of two-time champion Josef Newgarden on the front row for both races. The driver, who won in Iowa in 2019 and 2020, even cracked provisional pole for the races before being overtaken by teammate Power.

Carpenter's Conor Daly starts third on the grid for race 1, alongside McLaren's Mexican Pato O'Ward. Penske's Scott McLaughlin is fifth. The top-10 for Saturday's race also includes David Malukas, Jack Harvey, Rinus VeeKay, Takuma Sato, and Romain Grosjean.

The order of race 2, which takes place on Sunday, has some differences, such as the appearance of Colton Herta in third place. The American from Andretti will be followed by Daly, Sato, McLaughlin, Harvey, O'Ward, VeeKay and Felix Rosenqvist.

Ganassi surprised by its poor performance, starting outside the top-10 in both races. For Saturday's race, the four cars occupy 12th through 15th positions, with Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon, Álex Palou, and Jimmie Johnson. On Sunday, the best placed is Palou, in 12th, side by side with Johnson. Ericsson will start 15th, while Dixon is only 18th.

Meyer Shank's Brazilian Helio Castroneves will be forced to make a recovery run this weekend. With bad times, the veteran will start 25th on Saturday, and 24th on Sunday.

Indy race 1 in Iowa is scheduled to start at 5:00 pm (GMT-3) on Saturday.

Check out the standings for the IndyCar Series doubleheader in Iowa:

The first driver on the track was Ed Carpenter. His time for race 1 was 18s559, while lap 2 was a better 18s473. Foyt's Dalton Kellett came next, with worse marks. Kellett's teammate, Kirkwood placed himself among the drivers, in provisional second position.

Ganassi's Jimmie Johnson came in and took the provisional lead for both races. Andretti's Devlin DeFrancesco had a good run for the first race, placing behind Johnson, but the one for race 2 ended very poorly, ahead only of Kellett. Callum Ilott placed 3rd and 4th provisionally for the races with the Juncos.

RLL's Jack Harvey took both provisional pole positions, clocking 18s216 and 18s193. Takuma Sato's turn, the Japanese driver set the best lap of race 2 with a time of 18s154. Sato's teammate David Malukas appeared to take provisional pole in race 1, but his performance fell off on the second lap.

Helio Castroneves' turn was bad. With 18s664 and 18s588, the Brazilian of Meyer Shank ended up behind in both classifications. Christian Lundgaard had an average performance, placing himself in the middle of the table for both races. Andretti's Romain Grosjean jumped to fourth and third after good pace in his attempt.

Pole of race 2 in 2020, Conor Daly came flying with Carpenter and took pole for both races, with 18s134 and 18s153. Graham Rahal had average performances with RLL, while Rinus VeeKay placed fourth in both races with Carpenter. From Andretti, Alexander Rossi did poorly, with 9th and 11th.

Felix Rosenqvist came in fifth for both races, while Colton Herta took pole for race 2 with 18s129. Penske's Scott McLaughlin jumped to second place for race 1, but was only fourth for race 2. Pato O'Ward and Scott Dixon came in next, but without threatening the poles.

Penske's Josef Newgarden came on strong and scored the pole for both races, with 18s103 and 18s090. Reigning champion Álex Palou had a very average performance in the laps, staying out of the top-10. Newgarden's teammate, Will Power, beat his partner to both pole positions, with 18s060 and 18s079. Marcus Ericsson even went to the track, but his poor attempts kept Power on top.

Indy 2022, Iowa GP, Starting Grid, Race 1

Indy 2022, Iowa GP, Starting Gird, Race 2