Photo Credit: IndyCar
Friday, March 11th, 2016 did not start in the way Team Penske’s Will Power would have obviously desired, but it certainly ended with a silver lining as the striking new “Silver Bullet” livery, ended the opening day of practice for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in the most typical of positions for the so-called king of the road racers in the Verizon IndyCar Series: in position number one.
After suffering an accident in the morning efforts on the 1.8 mile combination of public roads and airport runways, the Australian bounced back in the afternoon testing window to post a one minute, 9.431 second pass in his No. 12 Verizon Wireless Chevrolet. Power will enter Saturday’s qualifying session seeking his second straight pole position in the IndyCar season opener, an effort he turned into a runner-up finish on race day a season ago. Of course, the timing charts show that the 2014 series champion will not have necessarily a cakewalk towards claiming the first Verizon P1 Award of the 2016 campaign.
Excluding Dale Coyne Racing’s Luca Filippi and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Spencer Pigot, 19 drivers were within a second of Power’s quick pass, with reigning series champion Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing the closest pursuer. The New Zealander, who was the only other driver to post a lap under 61 seconds on Friday, was within a tenth of a second of the Team Penske pilot’s effort. A third Chevrolet, belonging to Power’s Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud was third fastest overall, with the fastest Honda representative being two-time 2015 race winner Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan in position number four. AJ Foyt Racing’s Takuma Sato, at the wheel of another Honda-powered rounded out the top five.
Among other notables, James Hinchcliffe who is making his first start since last year’s Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis was sixth-quick for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports on Friday, defending race winner Juan Pablo Montoya for Team Penske was only tenth fastest, while Herta-Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi was the fastest among the Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates in 13th.
While Chevrolet entries held the top three times of the day, Honda appears to have made some progress in terms of closing the gap on the GM cars at least in terms of performance on the road and street circuits. HPD-backed machines claimed the next five fastest times, with both AJ Foyt Racing entries among them. In addition to Japan’s Sato, Britain’s Jack Hawksworth closed out opening day in position number eight.
The three-phase qualifying session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will begin at 3:40 p.m. eastern time on Saturday, culminating at 4:45 p.m. with the Firestone Fast Six.
Stay tuned to OnPitRoad.com for continuing coverage of the Firestone St. Petersburg Grand Prix and the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
