After being far from the top in this morning’s practice, Sebastien Bourdais turned a surprise flyer on his sixth lap to claim the Motul Pole Award for the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and will lead the field to the green for tomorrow’s six-hour TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Bourdais put in a stunner to take the pole over Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Louis Delétraz by 0.225s with a 1m14.592s lap, good for an average of 117.71mph around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Surprisingly, its Bourdais’ first pole position at the Brickyard in 22 attempts through sports cars and IndyCar. The pole, combined with less stellar performances by the Porsche Penske Motorsport squad, is a good start to keeping Bourdais and Renger van der Zande in the championship fight.

“We live to fight another day, and that’s very much the spirit we’re into until the end of season,” saidBourdais. “It seems like it’s going to be a bit of a tough day tomorrow, maybe with the with weather coming, so starting in front might not be the worst idea that we’ve had this weekend. Although quite insignificant for a six-hour race, it’s always very pleasing for personal matters, and also for the team, because everybody’s been working really hard to give us the best car and and that Cadill ac was definitely quite good today. So I’m very, very happy with the performance, but also very focused for what’s coming ahead and seemingly a very grueling six-hour race.”