Rahal put down a flying lap of 58.3195s to best the 27-car field at the 1.964-mile, 12-turn circuit. It is the second time this season Rahal has captured the top spot, which he last accomplished in 2009.
Rahal set his pole-winning time on a set of primary, black sidewall tyres and despite the other five drivers swapping to alternate, red sidewall tyres, no one was able to dethrone Rahal.
The best of the rest was Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who was 0.033s off the pace.
Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta qualified third, followed by the Chip Ganassi Racing duo of Scott Dixon and Alex Palou. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward closed out the group’s running in sixth.
The top 12 session was interrupted by a red flag less than three minutes in after Josef Newgarden buried his #2 Team Penske Chevrolet into the tyre barriers at Turn 12.
The Tennessee native, who admitted it was self-inflicted, dropped his left side wheels into the dirt on the exit of Turn 11, which resulted in a broken steering gear-shifter. It put an end to his qualifying effort and he will start 12th.
Upon the resumption, McLaughlin went quickest at 58.0777s, followed by Herta, O’Ward, Dixon, Palou and Rahal.
Beyond Newgarden, others that failed to make it through included his team-mate, Will Power, who missed the cut by 0.0531s. Power will start seventh.
Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Alexander Rossi (Arrow McLaren), Marcus Ericsson (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) also didn’t make it through.
Rosenqvist reported an issue and wasn’t able to make a final attempt to advance.
Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
In the Group 1 stage of qualifying, Rahal set the fastest time on the primary tyres at a lap of 58.3956s. However, the swap to alternate tyres immediately sparked a rotation at the top, which ended with Rosenqvist at the top by session’s end with a fast lap of 57.8967s – which stood as the fastest lap of the day overall.
Herta and Newgarden came across second and third, respectively. Others to advance were Rahal, Power and Ilott.
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was the first that failed to advance, running a 58.3240s lap that left him 13th on Sunday. Romain Grosjean was left upset about traffic once he finished up his run, with the Andretti Autosport driver set to start 15th.
Despite being fastest in Friday’s opening practice, and quick on Saturday’s second practice, RLL’s Christian Lundgaard ended up on the wrong end of the cut line, ending up ninth in the group and with a 17th-place start.
Ryan Hunter-Reay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport), Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) and Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing) were the rest that failed to advance.
In Group 2, championship leader Palou made his presence felt on both the primary and alternate compounds by going quickest on both versions of rubber. The Spaniard’s best run came on alternates, jetting to a flying lap of 57.9651s.
McLaughlin, the defending race winner who led Saturday morning’s practice bout, was second. O’Ward was third, followed by Dixon. Rossi got into the top six in fifth, followed by another Ganassi challenger in the form of Ericsson.
Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Marcus Armstrong was the first driver out of the second group to not advance, missing by 0.07s. He will start 14th.
Juri Vips, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Autosport) also failed to move on, ending up eighth in the running and will start 16th.
Juri Vips, who is making his IndyCar debut with RLL, had an eventful run, missing the apex in Turn 1 and sliding over the curbing in the run-off area at Turn 2 before rejoining the circuit in Turn 3. The Estonian’s maiden qualifying bout was a respectable enough on pace that will see him start 18th.
Rookie Augustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing with HMD), along with rookies Benjamin Pedersen (AJ Foyt Racing) and Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) failed to progress into the top 12.
IndyCar Portland – Qualifying results
Q3
Q2
Q1 G2
Q1 G1