Photo Credit: IndyCar
After what appeared to be an equal split between Chevrolet and Honda for the top times during action Friday and Saturday morning in St. Petersburg, Florida, Roger Penske’s quartet of drivers flipped the scenario in their own favor on Saturday afternoon as the most successful team in American open wheel racing history swept the first two rows of the grid for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix.
The Verizon IndyCar Series’ leading road course driver Will Power was again the man to beat on Saturday, as with the introduction of Firestone’s option red sidewall tires, the Australian nearly became the first driver to complete a circuit of the 1.8 mile combination of public roads and airport runway in under 60 seconds, posting a one minute even run to lead the field into the Firestone Fast Six session. Although the 2014 series champion was marginally slower in the pole position-determining period, his one minute, .245 second pass was good enough to secure the first Verizon P1 Award of the 2016 season.
Even if Power would have been unable to take the top spot, he had three teammates in waiting to take the honors. Simon Pagenaud, who looks to earn his first IndyCar victory for the Captain after going winless a season ago, will lineup next to Power on the front row, missing the top time by under two tenths of a second. The second row features Helio Castroneves, who will look to earn his fourth triumph at St. Petersburg, but his first since 2012, as well as Juan Pablo Montoya, who outdueled Power to take the checkered flag first a season ago. Only 28 one hundredths of a second separated the fastest Penske pilot from the slowest in the Firestone Fast Six.
Best of the rest honors on Saturday went to reigning series champion Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing, who will look for his first victory at St. Petersburg on Sunday after claiming runner-up honors on three previous occasions. Dixon came within three tenths of Power to claim the inside position of row three. As mentioned previously, the Honda runners had shown pace on Friday and Saturday morning, but as Team Penske and the other Chevrolet runners moved forward during qualifying, the Hondas suddenly fell back. Only Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay made the Firestone Fast Six, and will start alongside Dixon on row three.
Graham Rahal and Jack Hawksworth, who posted the fastest Honda times on Saturday morning’s practice period, both missed out on the Firestone Fast Six and will start seventh and tenth respectively. James Hinchcliffe, who is making his first IndyCar start Sunday since suffering serious leg injuries at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last May, qualified ninth on Saturday. None of the candidates for the 2016 Sunoco Rookie of the Year award were able to advance out of the first phase of qualifying, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Max Chilton the highest placed on the starting grid in 17th.
The pole effort is Will Power’s sixth at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, of which he has successfully transformed two into eventual race victories. A win on Sunday would tie him with current teammate Helio Castroneves as the most successful driver in St. Petersburg event history with three victories.
Stay tuned to OnPitRoad.com for a full recap of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after the checkered flag flies on Sunday.
