Team Penske sweeps top four spots in St. Pete qualifying
Will Power kicks off 2015 where he left off in 2014 ... On top.
Photo by: General Motors
Although it’s not the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was great hearing “It’s a new track record!” as Will Power managed to blaze his way around the 1.8 mile track on the Streets of St. Petersburg to pole position for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The old track record of 1:00.928 set in 2003 went down in the second group of round one as Will Power managed to pull off a lap of 1:00.8344 seconds, which went down even further in the second round of qualifying with a lap record of 1:00.6509.
Penske train
However, in the final round of qualifying, Power was able to secure the pole with a lap of 1:00.6931 ahead of teammates Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya. Takuma Sato was the fastest Honda in fifth while 2003 St. Petersburg winner Sebastien Bourdais qualified sixth.
The first round of qualifying saw Dale Coyne Racing’s Francesco Dracone and Carlos Huertas make up the back row of the grid while Jack Hawksworth, Luca Filippi, Stefano Coletti, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball being eliminated in group 1 taking up the odd grid positions from 21st to 13th. The even positions from 22nd to 14th were eliminated in group 2, and they’re filled by Gabby Chaves, James Jakes, Sage Karam, James Hinchcliffe and Carlos Munoz.
After the first round of qualifying ended, the second round began with lap times dropping left and right. By the end of the session, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Simona de Silvestro and Marco Andretti were looking at starting 7th through 12th, respectively. Despite an officials’ review of a small blocking situation between four drivers, the fast six remained as they originally occurred.
The race starts at 3:30 PM ET tomorrow.
Pos | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Gap |
1 | Will Power | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'00.6931 | - |
2 | Simon Pagenaud | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'00.7252 | 0.0321 |
3 | H.Castroneves | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'00.8356 | 0.1425 |
4 | J.P.Montoya | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'00.8532 | 0.1601 |
5 | Takuma Sato | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.1496 | 0.4565 |
6 | S.Bourdais | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.1545 | 0.4614 |
7 | Tony Kanaan | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.1182 | 0.4251 |
8 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.1670 | 0.4739 |
9 | Scott Dixon | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.2285 | 0.5354 |
10 | Josef Newgarden | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.2478 | 0.5547 |
11 | S.de Silvestro | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.3657 | 0.6726 |
12 | Marco Andretti | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.4765 | 0.7834 |
13 | Charlie Kimball | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.5727 | 0.8796 |
14 | Carlos Muñoz | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.4890 | 0.7959 |
15 | Graham Rahal | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.5742 | 0.8811 |
16 | J.Hinchcliffe | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.5780 | 0.8849 |
17 | Stefano Coletti | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.6727 | 0.9796 |
18 | Sage Karam | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.8011 | 1.1080 |
19 | Luca Filippi | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'01.6736 | 0.9805 |
20 | James Jakes | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.8323 | 1.1392 |
21 | Jack Hawksworth | Dallara/Honda | 1'02.0095 | 1.3164 |
22 | Gabby Chaves | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.9705 | 1.2774 |
23 | F.Dracone | Dallara/Honda | 1'04.2654 | 3.5723 |
24 | Carlos Huertas | Dallara/Honda | 1'01.9716 | 1.2785 |
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