Power grabs sixth St. Petersburg pole, heads Penske 1-2-3-4

The Australian, who has won this race twice, pulled off a masterstroke in Q2 by completing just two timed laps compared with others’ six and seven laps. But Power’s sole fast lap in that session put him top at 1m00.0658sec, 0.17sec clear of Scott Dixon, and simultaneously shattered his previous lap record by half a second.

But it also meant that in Q3, on scuffed reds, Power still had enough life left in his rubber to set a 1m00.2450secs, deposing Pagenaud with his final run, and earning him his 43^rd pole position.

Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya were 0.25sec and 0.29sec away respectively, to complete a Penske 1-2-3-4 at St. Petersburg.

Fastest non-Penske was predictably reigning champion Dixon who qualified fifth, while Ryan Hunter-Reay held up Honda honor with sixth.

Graham Rahal clocked seventh fastest in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, edging Sebastien Bourdais (KVSH-Chevy), and James Hinchcliffe’s Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda.

Slightly disappointing was the performance of AJ Foyt Racing-Honda, a team that has figured in the top six throughout practice; Jack Hawksworth and Takuma Sato will roll off 10^th and 11^th tomorrow, just ahead of Josef Newgarden’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet.

Eliminated in the first round of qualifying were all the rookies – Alexander Rossi (Andretti), Conor Daly (Dale Coyne Racing), Max Chilton (Ganassi) and Spencer Pigot (RLLR).

However, they could console themselves with the thought that fellow Q1-eliminees included series veterans and former St. Pete podium finishers Tony Kanaan (Ganassi) and Marco Andretti (Andretti).

IndyCar 2016 - St. Petersburg - Qualifying

Pos	N°	Driver	Team	Time
1	12	Will Power	Penske (C)	1:00.2450
2	22	Simon Pagenaud	Penske (C)	1:00.4421
3	3	Helio Castroneves	Penske (C)	1:00.4995
4	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Penske (C)	1:00.5312
5	9	Scott Dixon	Ganassi (C)	1:00.5395
6	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti (H)	1:00.8803
7	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal (H)	1:00.5893
8	11	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH (C)	1:00.6711
9	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt (H)	1:00.6724
10	41	Jack Hawksworth	Foyt (H)	1:00.7188
11	14	Takuma Sato	Foyt (H)	1:00.9745
12	21	Josef Newgarden	Carpenter (C)	1:01.0571
13	26	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti (H)	1:01.1856
14	83	Charlie Kimball	Ganassi (C)	1:01.0433
15	27	Marco Andretti	Andretti (H)	1:01.2417
16	19	Luca Filippi	Coyne (H)	1:01.1699
17	8	Max Chilton	Ganassi (C)	1:01.5372
18	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt (H)	1:01.2934
19	98	Alexander Rossi	Andretti/Herta (H)	1:01.5794
20	10	Tony Kanaan	Ganassi (C)	1:01.3414
21	18	Conor Daly	Coyne (H)	1:01.9385
22	16	Spencer Pigot	Rahal (H)	1:01.3881

(C) = Chevrolet, (H) = Honda