Herta hustles his way to back to back Pole Positions at Detroit

Evan Roberts
2 days ago
4 min read

Written by Evan Roberts

Colton Herta would silence the doubters to claim his 15th IndyCar Pole position and his second in a row at Detroit in a dominant display, topping each of the session in which he competed.

A cold qualifying on the streets of motown started with a clear statement of intent by the 2025 Indy 500 champion Álex Palou who, opted to go straight onto the softer alternate tyres, not wanting to risk losing out in the case of a caution or red flag.

At the end of the first banker runs it would be the six drivers who opted for the same strategy that would be above the cutoff to advance.

As the rest of the group one field came back out onto the track, all were on the alternate tyre and it would be IndyCar’s all time record polesitter Will Power who would top the timings with a 1.00.982.

Joining him in advancing to the fast 12 would be some of the usual suspects in the form of Palou, Christian Lundgaard and Scott McLaughlin as well as Marcus Armstrong and Rinus Veekay. The latter two bouncing back after a tumultuous two weeks at Indianapolis.

Some of the shocks of the session would be the favoured Andretti car of Marcus Ericsson being knocked out of qualifying in P7 as well as his countryman Felix Rosenqvist in P8, both were less than a tenth from advancing.

Last year’s winner of the Detroit Grand Prix, Scott Dixon, would opt for the same strategy as teammate Palou. Unlike the Chip Ganassi Racing duo, both of the remaining Andretti Global cars of Kyle Kirkwood and last years polesitter Colton Herta went the other way and went for the harder primary tyre for their banker laps.

Unfortunately for Nolan Siegel, his session would be interrupted by an untimely engine issue that would see him spend the rest of the session on pit lane, putting him 14th and last.

After the banker laps were complete it would be Christian Rasmussen who would lead the field, an impressive three tenths in front of his nearest competitor David Malukas.

Both drivers would find their alternate runs useful as they would advance in third and fourth having found another 3 tenths to their initial times. Joining them would be Herta who would top the session with a 1.00.687, almost three tenths quicker than the best time in group one.

As well as this it would be his Andretti teammate of Kirkwood who would advance along side a pair of drivers who have grid drop penalties (six-places) hanging over their head in Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon. Both due to unapproved engine changes.

Some of the key drivers to not advance would be second placed driver in the Drivers Standings Pato O’Ward, as well as Josef Newgarden. The Penske driver having made contact with the wall on the exit of turn four on his last run, which would end his session with a broken left rear suspension arm.

Surprisingly it would be the fast 12 where we would have ourself the first driver to go down the turn 8 runoff. Lundgaard would be the driver to commit the crime, his punishment being a drive through penalty due to the yellow flags that followed.

Following the opening runs it would be Herta who would be the driver to beat once again in qualifying around Detroit.

It would be the Andretti driver who set the fastest time across the session, one that would eclipse his pole time in 2024 with a 1.00.456.

Joining him would be teammate Kirkwood in second followed closely by the star of the session in Malukas. Lundgaard, Palou and Rahal would fill the remaining spots.

This would knock out both Penske cars of McLaughlin and Power as well as Veekay, Dixon, Armstrong and Rasmussen.

Interestingly Herta would be the only driver to select the Primary tyres for the start of the session before bailing after the outlap having built temperature in his brakes. The only drivers to have a fresh set of alternate tyres would be Herta, Kirkwood and Malukas.

It would be the latter who would lay down the gauntlet for the drivers to beat as with two minutes left on the clock the AJ Foyt driver would sit P1 with a 1.00.649.

Come the chequered flag, the only driver who would be able to beat it would be the dominant Herta. Taking pole position for the first time since Toronto in 2024, having topped every qualifying session he featured in.

The rest of the top six would be Malukas, Kirkwood, Lundgaard, Rahal and Palou. A quick reminder of Rahal's penalty that will drop him down to tenth come the green flag.

Frustratingly for Kirkwood, a small tap of the wall out of turn 3 would prove to be the difference between first and his eventual position of third, having bent his right rear toe link.

Knowing how incident packed last years race was, those towards the back will be hoping for a similar story tomorrow as we await the green flag for the 2025 Detroit Grand Prix.