IndyCar St. Pete: Power takes pole, title contenders stumble

Will Power took his fifth pole position of the year while his championship contending Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Josef Newgarden could manage only eighth – but ahead of title favorite Scott Dixon.

Power had just enough grip left in his Firestone reds to nail a 61.0369sec lap, and edge Andretti Autosport duo Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta by 0.13 and 0.14sec respectively. It was the 62nd pole of Power’s Indy car racing career and his ninth in 11 years at the 1.8-mile street and runway course at St. Petersburg, FL.

Herta was left disappointed by his run, believing the extra set of fresh reds accrued in Q1 failed to turn on in time for him to outperform Power.

James Hinchcliffe emphasized Andretti Autosport’s return to form with an excellent fourth, ahead of semi-sister car, the Meyer Shank Racing machine of Jack Harvey.

Starting alongside him will be the top Arrow McLaren SP entry of Pato O’Ward.

In Q2, Power set top time on primaries, a 60.8237sec just ahead of O’Ward and Herta. On alternates, Power lowered this to 60.3324, ahead of Herta and O’Ward.

Championship contenders Newgarden and Dixon fell in Q2, Newgarden 0.5352sec off Power’s pace, and Dixon 0.6959 behind. The result leaves Newgarden starting eighth alongside AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet’s Sebastien Bourdais, while Rookie of the Year Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing and the second Arrow McLaren SP of Oliver Askew – back after missing the Harvest GP due to concussion will fill out the fifth row.

Simon Pagenaud was up with teammate Newgarden in terms of pace, but spun the #22 Penske-Chevy heading into the final turn, and lost his two best laps, dropping him to 12th alongside Dixon.

In Q1 Group 2, Herta looked so strong on blacks, setting a 60.6614sec lap – 0.4sec clear of Power, that when they ducked into the pits to grab a set of alternate tires, Herta did not emerge again. Impressively, his fastest time on primaries withstood alternate-tired runs from VeeKay, Power, and Felix Rosenqvist.

However, Rosenqvist – nursing a fracture in his right hand – lost his two best laps for blocking Alex Palou’s Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, which Ganassi believed was only on an out lap. Thus Rosenqvist was bumped out of qualifying and initially Palou was put in.

That should have benefited Oliver Askew who missed the cut only by 0.0773sec but he and VeeKay initially also lost their best times for not slowing sufficiently for a yellow flag caused by Max Chilton sliding into the Turn 10 run-off. Thus Palou and Conor Daly in the second ECR-Chevy were promoted into Q2…. But only briefly. A timing and scoring glitch saw the wrong laps deleted, and suddenly Askew and VeeKay were back in, while Palou and Daly were consigned to the back half of the grid. This whole confusion took more than 20mins to sort out.

In Q1 Group 1 losses included the two Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars, Takuma Sato clipping an inside wall but surviving a 130mph off course excursion.

Penske’s IndyCar debutant, three-time Supercars champion McLaughlin got within one second of top time, but ended up 12th and last in the group, admitting he’d made mistakes on his alternate-tired run.

Another surprise exclusion was Ryan Hunter-Reay who had looked strong in morning practice.

ClaDriverTeamLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 Will Power Team Penske5 1’01.036   106.165
2 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport4 1’01.173 0.136 0.136 105.929
3 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport3 1’01.181 0.144 0.008 105.914
4 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport4 1’01.362 0.325 0.181 105.602
5 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing5 1’01.367 0.330 0.004 105.593
6 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP4 1’01.772 0.735 0.405 104.901
View full results

Q2

ClaDriverTeamLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 Will Power Team Penske8 1’00.332   107.405
2 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport7 1’00.368 0.036 0.036 107.340
3 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP7 1’00.618 0.285 0.249 106.899
4 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing7 1’00.626 0.294 0.008 106.884
5 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport7 1’00.735 0.403 0.109 106.692
6 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport7 1’00.762 0.430 0.027 106.644
7 Sébastien Bourdais A.J. Foyt Enterprises8 1’00.810 0.477 0.047 106.561
8 Josef Newgarden Team Penske8 1’00.867 0.535 0.057 106.461
9 Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing8 1’00.883 0.551 0.016 106.432
10 Oliver AskewArrow McLaren SP7 1’00.977 0.644 0.093 106.269
11 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing8 1’01.028 0.695 0.051 106.180
12 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske8 1’01.229 0.897 0.201 105.831
View full results

Q1 Group 2

ClaDriverTeamLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport5 1’00.661   106.822
2 Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing8 1’00.772 0.110 0.110 106.628
3 Will Power Team Penske8 1’00.773 0.111 0.000 106.626
4 Sébastien Bourdais A.J. Foyt Enterprises8 1’00.880 0.219 0.107 106.438
5 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP7 1’00.941 0.279 0.060 106.332
6 Oliver AskewArrow McLaren SP7 1’01.018 0.357 0.077 106.197
7 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing8 1’01.160 0.499 0.142 105.950
8 Alex PalouDale Coyne Racing with Team Goh8 1’01.163 0.501 0.002 105.946
9 Santino FerrucciDale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan8 1’01.179 0.518 0.016 105.917
10 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises7 1’01.242 0.581 0.062 105.809
11 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing8 1’01.522 0.861 0.279 105.327
12 Max Chilton Carlin5 1’21.790 21.129 20.268 79.226
View full results

Q1 Group 1

ClaDriverTeamLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport7 1’00.652   106.838
2 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing7 1’00.731 0.078 0.078 106.700
3 Josef Newgarden Team Penske8 1’00.743 0.090 0.011 106.679
4 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing8 1’00.872 0.219 0.129 106.452
5 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske8 1’00.874 0.222 0.002 106.448
6 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport7 1’00.886 0.234 0.011 106.427
7 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing7 1’00.942 0.289 0.055 106.330
8 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing8 1’00.961 0.309 0.019 106.296
9 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing8 1’01.145 0.493 0.183 105.976
10 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport7 1’01.173 0.520 0.027 105.929
11 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske7 1’01.640 0.988 0.467 105.125
12 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani7 1’01.683 1.030 0.042 105.053
View full results


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