INDIANAPOLIS — Sebastian Saavedra won the first pole of his career Friday when Ryan Hunter-Reay was penalized for bringing out a session-ending red flag during qualifying at the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. “We definitely gave that one away,” Hunter-Reay said. Hunter-Reay had just moved to the top of the Fast Six leaderboard when he spun exiting the final turn of his next lap. It looked as if the 2012 IndyCar champion may have hit a patch of water exiting Turn 14 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where showers changed track conditions for each of the four qualifying sessions. The rain picked up moments before the start of the Fast Six session, and IndyCar brought the cars back to pit road because of standing water on the track. The red flag lasted about 20 minutes before IndyCar sent the six cars back out for the final 10-minute session. Saavedra had just bumped rookie Jack Hawksworth from the pole when Hunter-Reay turned his fast lap. But the IndyCar rule is to strip a driver of his two fastest laps for bringing out a red flag during qualifying, so Hunter-Reay was dropped to third. Hunter-Reay, the only driver to advance to the Fast Six through the first four races of the season, has not started lower than third this year. But his Andretti Autosport team had work to do to repair his bright yellow No. 28, which sustained heavy damage to the right rear of the car. Saavedra, who turned a lap at 1 minute, 23.8822 seconds, will lead the field to the green flag for the first IndyCar road course race at Indianapolis. The previous road course was reconfigured into a 14-turn, 2.439-mile course to accommodate IndyCar, which is using the race to open the speedway and create buzz in advance of the Indianapolis 500. Drivers for the first time are running counterclockwise at the famed speedway, which will run the Grand Prix Saturday and then revert to the traditional oval Sunday for the opening practice for the May 25 main event. Because the event and the track configuration are new, the field may be even headed into Saturday's race. It appeared that way when Saavedra advanced into his first Fast Six of the season, then hung on to win the pole and give IndyCar a relatively inexperienced front row. Saavedra has 41 career starts dating to 2010, but his longtime backer this year brought him to KV Racing, the team that won the Indianapolis 500 last year with Tony Kanaan. Hawksworth, starting on the outside of Saavedra, has three previous starts. The British driver is in his first season with Bryan Herta Autosport. Hawksworth spent last season racing Indy Lights, where he won three times. Meanwhile, a tough qualifying assignment made it a nearly impossible session for Andretti Autosport, which had all five of its cars in the first group. With only six drivers advancing from that group, the odds were stacked against the organization. Indeed, only Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe moved on while Marco Andretti, Carlos Munoz and Franck Montagny were eliminated. Mikhail Aleshin, the first Russian in IndyCar history, had been strong through three practices and advanced into the second round of qualifying. But his fastest laps were wiped out when he was hit with an interference penalty. — AP
