Bourdais Storms to Pole at Indy

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Sebastien Boudais has taken Chip Ganassi Racing to pole for Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Frenchman, in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R, reeled off a best lap of 1:14.592 in qualifying Saturday at The Brickyard, edging out Louis Deletraz’s No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 by 0.225 seconds.

It marked Bourdais’ second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole of the season after taking top qualifying honors at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May.

Mathieu Jaminet qualified third in the best of the Penske Porsche 963s, followed by the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken in fourth.

The No. 25 Team BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi completed the top-five, ahead of Ricky Taylor’s No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura and the GTP championship-leading No. 7 Penske Porsche of Felipe Nasr in seventh.

LMP2 saw Nick Boulle break PJ Hyett’s run of four consecutive class poles, taking the points-leading No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson to top qualifying honors.

Boulle’s 1:17.618 lap was 0.461 seconds clear of the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca of Steven Thomas, with Ben Keating, Hyett and Dan Goldburg completing the top-five.

It marked Boulle’s first career WeatherTech Championship pole.

Heinrich, Grenier Score GT Poles

Laurin Heinrich scored GTD Pro pole for the championship-leading AO Racing squad, which returns to the ‘Rexy’ livery this weekend on its Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Heinrich drove the No. 77 Porsche to a best lap of 1:23.150, narrowly edging out the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg by 0.059 seconds.

Mike Rockenfeller qualified third in the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3, followed by Neil Verhagen, who made it four different GT3 manufacturers in the top-four in his No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.

The No. 4 Corvette of Alexander Sims completed the top-five.

GTD pole honors, meanwhile, went to the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Mikael Grenier, thanks to a 1:23.537.

Grenier’s lap was a full two-tenths clear of second-placed Giammarco Levorato in the No. 55 Proton Competition Mustang GT3.

It marked the Canadian’s second WeatherTech Championship pole in the last three races.

The Battle on the Bricks gets underway Sunday at 11:40 a.m. EDT with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA Radio, with network NBC coverage beginning at 3 p.m. EDT.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John