Herta lapped the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course with a best time of 1m06.3096s, and will start ahead of Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) and Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti).
Last year’s pole-winner, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, spun out of qualifying during the opening stage and so will start at the back of the grid.
Fast Six qualifying
The Firestone Fast Six field was split on tyre strategy, with Christian Lundgaard (RLL) setting the early pace on scuffed alternates at 1m06.7805s. Herta and Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) pitted after their out laps to ditch alternates for fresh primaries, with Herta rising to second with a couple of minutes to go.
Rahal grabbed P1 on scuffed alternates with 1m06.3528s, with Palou going P2 on 1m06.4166s, just 0.0638s slower. Amazingly, Kirkwood managed to split them with 1m06.3693s, missing pole by 0.0165s.
But Herta was not to be denied, grabbing pole on his final lap with 1m06.3096s – snatching it by 0.0432s, ahead of Rahal and Kirkwood.
Palou will start fourth, ahead of Lundgaard and Scott Dixon (Ganassi).
Fast 12 qualifying
In the second round of qualifying, Herta set the primary tyre pace at 1m06.8404s and was quickest on the alternates too with 1m05.8576s, ahead of Lundgaard, Rahal, Kirkwood, Dixon and Palou.
Team Penske’s Will Power missed the cut by 0.1276s and will start seventh, ahead of team-mate Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), Felix Rosenqvist (the best-placed Arrow McLaren driver), Jack Harvey (Rahal) and David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing).
Group stage qualifying
In Group 1, Pato O’Ward set the early pace for Arrow McLaren with 1m06.9058s but spun exiting the Keyhole and stalled his engine, causing a red flag that meant he could no longer progress.
Ericsson was fastest on primaries at 1m07.0916s, and on alternates, he was also quickest at 1m05.9252s, ahead of team-mate Palou.
Missing out was Alexander Rossi (McLaren), who will start 13th on the odd side of the grid, ahead of Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), Ryan Hunter-Reay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), Agustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Benjamin Pedersen (AJ Foyt Racing) and the gutted O’Ward, who’ll start 25th.
In Group 2, Herta set the benchmark on primaries at 1m06.2999s but team-mate Kirkwood was fastest on alternates at 1m05.7240s, ahead of Dixon.
Making no further progress were Romain Grosjean (Andretti), who will start 14th, ahead of Rinus VeeKay (ECR), Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi), Callum Ilott (Juncos), Sting Ray Robb (Coyne), Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti) and Santino Ferrucci (Foyt).
Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud did not take part in qualifying after his horrendous crash in practice this morning. Conor Daly is on standby if IndyCar does not clear him for action tomorrow.