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Will Power has said on multiple occasions that he isn’t quite sure what makes him so good on temporary street circuits and in dealing with all of the obstacles that are inherent with them. You can choose to believe him or not. But what cannot be disputed is that whenever the IZOD IndyCar Series hits the streets, the rest of the field will have to go through him to get a victory.
Such is the scenario for tomorrow’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Power and his No. 12 Verizon-backed Team Penske machine have dominated the time charts all weekend long and today in qualifying, he claimed the third pole of his IRL career with a lap of 61.6026 seconds around the 1.8-mile course in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.
Power managed to outhustle Tony Kanaan of Andretti Autosport by nearly three-tenths of a second in the Firestone Fast Six to earn the prize, as well as one championship point that could prove handy down the road. But for now, all Power is focused on is Sunday and making sure to finish off what has been a perfect weekend for him and his team so far.
“We’re still at the front, and so I’m very happy,” he said. “It’s been a process. We’ve been working away at it and go through each session and look after our [red alternate tires]. I came away with pole. We would have been disappointed if we didn’t, given our pace this weekend.”
But not everything was hunky-dory for Team Penske. Helio Castroneves, a former winner at St. Petersburg, also managed to crack the FF6 and wound up earning the fifth starting position. However, defending St. Pete champion Ryan Briscoe was unable to advance out of the first of the three rounds of knockout qualifying. He will start 19th in tomorrow’s race and will have to make a deep charge from the back in order to avoid back-to-back subpar results to start the year.
“We were the first car to go out on red tires and then we went to blacks, and it was really just bad timing,” Briscoe said. “The track got quite a bit quicker, and we needed to be on reds at the end of the session. It’s a bit disappointing as the Team Penske car has been fast all weekend and we have a good car for the race, but we’re going to be starting from farther back than we should be.”
Another big threat had some trouble in qualifying. Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti, a regular contender on street courses, also failed to advance out of the first round after being slowed down by Briscoe while trying to put up a solid lap.
“Briscoe had some problems of his own, and I caught him in Turn 8 and got held up,” said Franchitti, who will start 13th. “That was unfortunate. The guys made some great changes to the car, and we were pretty quick after the crash in practice yesterday.”
Franchitti’s teammate, two-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, had better luck. The New Zealander made the FF6 and put down the third-quickest lap to earn a spot on the inside of Row 2. He’ll be joined by Justin Wilson of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, who was part of the entertaining battle for the win last year in St. Petersburg between himself, Briscoe and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
The third row features Castroneves in his return to St. Petersburg after missing last year’s event there due to being on trial for tax evasion charges. Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti will be on the outside of the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner after claiming P6.
Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport and FAZZT Race Team’s Alex Tagliani make up the fourth row and the top ten starters are rounded out by KV Racing Technology’s E.J. Viso and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Mike Conway in Row 5.
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Hinchcliffe grabs pole for Indy Lights opener
Canadian driver James Hinchcliffe and newcomer J.K. Vernay of France will lead the Firestone Indy Lights grid to the green flag for their series’ season opener tomorrow in St. Petersburg. Hinchcliffe, driving for Team Moore Racing, won the pole with a time of 66.3497 seconds in the No. 2 Xtreme Coil Drilling special, while Vernay threw down a lap of 66.4814 seconds in the No. 7 Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry.
Sebastian Saavedra, now with Bryan Herta Autosport, will start third in tomorrow’s event (12:45 p.m. ET, IndyCar.com). Joining him in Row 2 is Team E’s Jan Heylen, a former competitor in the Champ Car World Series. AFS/Andretti Autosport’s Martin Plowman and SSM’s James Winslow start from Row 3.
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Young guns make impact in ‘Road to Indy’ ladder events
Nazareth, Pennsylvania native Sage Karam made history on the streets of St. Petersburg by winning the first U.S. Formula 2000 National Championship event under Indy Racing League sanction. The 15-year-old driver for Andretti Autosport driver took the victory from the pole. Speaking of poles, 18-year-old Conor Daly grabbed one for tomorrow’s Star Mazda event, which is slated for an 11:50 a.m. ET start. Conor, the son of former Indy 500 and Formula One driver Derek Daly, earned the honor with a lap of 70.352 seconds.
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IZOD IndyCar Series
Honda GP of St. Petersburg
Starting lineup
(Car #-Driver, Sponsor/Team, Lap Time; average speed in parentheses)
1. 12-Will Power, Verizon/Team Penske, 61.6026 (105.190)
2. 11-Tony Kanaan, 7-Eleven/Andretti, 61.8797 (104.719)
3. 9- Scott Dixon, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, 62.0820 (104.378)
4. 22-Justin Wilson, Z-Line Designs/Dreyer & Reinbold, 62.1992 (104.181)
5. 3-Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, 62.2118 (104.160)
6. 26-Marco Andretti, Venom Energy/Andretti, 62.3461 (103.936)
7. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, IZOD/Andretti, 61.8979 (104.689)
8. 77-Alex Tagliani, B&W/FAZZT, 61.9692 (104.568)
9. 8-E.J. Viso, PDVSA/KV Racing Tech., 61.9807 (104.549)
10. 24-Mike Conway, Dad’s Root Beer/D&R, 62.0434 (104.443)
11. 5-Takuma Sato, KVRT, 62.4205 (103.812)
12. 06-Hideki Mutoh, Newman-Haas-Lanigan, 62.5113 (103.661)
13. 10-Dario Franchitti, TCGR, 62.1944 (104.189)
14. 78-Simona de Silvestro, Stargate Worlds/HVM, 62.4493 (103.764)
15. 4-Dan Wheldon, National Guard/Panther, 62.2557 (104.087)
16. 67-Graham Rahal, Dollar General/Fisher, 62.5044 (103.673)
17. 14-Vitor Meira, ABC Supply/Foyt, 62.2688 (104.065)
18. 34-Mario Romancini, H2Go/Conquest, 62.7366 (103.289)
19. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske, 62.3205 (103.979)
20. 32-Mario Moraes, KVRT, 62.8294 (103.136)
21. 7-Danica Patrick, GoDaddy.com/Andretti, 62.4904 (103.696)
22. 19-Alex Lloyd, Boy Scouts of America/Dale Coyne, 63.4793 (102.081)
23. 2-Raphael Matos, HP/Luczo Dragon-de Ferran, 63.0144 (102.834)
24. 18-Milka Duno, CITGO/Dale Coyne, 68.5058 (94.591)
