Pippa Mann has won pole position for the Firestone Freedom 100, after a sensational qualifyingeffort that has seen the young Brit become the first female driver in the Indianapolis MotorSpeedway’s 101-year history to put a car on pole.

After a solid fifth position in both practice sessions, Mann went out for qualifying and recorded aconvincing average speed of 187.989 mph (1 minute, 35.7505 seconds) around the 2.5 mile oval.The Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver took provisional pole with just five cars left to qualify. Despitea challenge from last year’s Freedom 100 winner Wade Cunningham, Mann’s time could not besurpassed. She took the pole - launching herself into the record books and to the front of the fieldfor tomorrow’s Firestone Freedom 100.

An elated Mann said: “I knew we had a quick race car, but I wasn’t expecting to be on pole positiontoday. I was concerned after practice that the car felt too loose, so my engineer made somechanges and when I went out to qualify, the car felt great. My dash wasn’t working and I had noidea what my speed was, so you can imagine how surprised I was to find out we were on pole!

“I’m really looking forward to the race – last year was a disappointment for me, so I’m thrilled tohave the opportunity to get back out there and go for the win.”

Mann will line-up beside team mate Cunningham to complete a Sam Schmidt Motorsports frontrow, with the AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport cars of Charlie Kimball and Martin Plowman on rowtwo.

The Firestone Freedom 100 is scheduled for 12:30pm local time, on Friday 28 May.