St Pete IndyCar qualifying results: McLaughlin takes shock pole

McLaughlin will start ahead of Power and Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta after qualifying, which is split into four segments of knock-out qualifying which culminates in the Firestone Fast Six.

How the grid lines up for St Petersburg IndyCar race

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	59.482		108.940
2	Will Power	Team Penske	59.605	0.123	108.714
3	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	59.710	0.228	108.524
4	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	59.810	0.328	108.343
5	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	59.811	0.329	108.340
6	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	1'00.204	0.722	107.634
7	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	59.757	0.275	108.438
8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	59.824	0.342	108.318
9	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	59.886	0.404	108.205
10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	59.958	0.476	108.075
11	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	59.987	0.504	108.023
12	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'00.261	0.779	107.531
13	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	59.993	0.511	108.012
14	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	59.952	0.470	108.086
15	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'00.027	0.545	107.950
16	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'00.002	0.520	107.996
17	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	1'00.142	0.660	107.744
18	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	1'00.085	0.602	107.847
19	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1'00.212	0.730	107.620
20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'00.192	0.710	107.655
21	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	1'00.391	0.909	107.299
22	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	1'00.293	0.810	107.475
23	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'00.533	1.051	107.049
24	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	1'00.460	0.978	107.178
25	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'00.939	1.457	106.336
26	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'01.027	1.545	106.182
View full results

What happened in Q1?

In the first of the split sessions of 13 cars, Herta set the pace by 0.3098s from Graham Rahal, Rinus Veekay, Scott Dixon, Kyle Kirkwood and Josef Newgarden.

Falling at the first hurdle were Alex Rossi, Christian Lundgaard, Helio Castroneves, Callum Ilott, Felix Rosenqvist, Jack Harvey and Tatiana Calderon.

St Petersburg IndyCar Q1, Group 1 results: Herta fastest from Rahal

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	7	59.466			108.969
2	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	8	59.776	0.309	0.309	108.405
3	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	8	59.804	0.338	0.028	108.353
4	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	59.810	0.344	0.006	108.342
5	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	7	59.853	0.387	0.042	108.265
6	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	8	59.914	0.448	0.061	108.154
7	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	7	59.993	0.526	0.078	108.012
8	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	7	1'00.027	0.561	0.034	107.950
9	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	8	1'00.142	0.676	0.115	107.744
10	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	6	1'00.212	0.745	0.069	107.620
11	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	7	1'00.391	0.925	0.179	107.299
12	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	7	1'00.533	1.067	0.141	107.049
13	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	8	1'00.939	1.472	0.405	106.336
View full results

In the second session, Power topped it by almost two tenths from McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean, Simon Pagenaud and Marcus Ericsson.

Knocked out at this point were Dalton Kellett, Pato O’Ward (who hit the wall on the exit of Turn 9), rookie Devlin DeFrancesco, Conor Daly, Takuma Sato, David Malukas and Jimmie Johnson.

St Petersburg IndyCar Q1, Group 2 results: Power fastest from McLaughlin

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Will Power	Team Penske	6	59.392			109.104
2	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	6	59.584	0.191	0.191	108.753
3	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	6	59.626	0.233	0.042	108.676
4	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	7	59.703	0.311	0.077	108.536
5	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	59.881	0.488	0.177	108.214
6	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	9	59.895	0.502	0.014	108.188
7	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	8	59.952	0.559	0.056	108.086
8	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	6	1'00.002	0.609	0.050	107.996
9	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	8	1'00.085	0.692	0.082	107.847
10	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	8	1'00.192	0.799	0.107	107.655
11	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	8	1'00.293	0.900	0.100	107.475
12	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	8	1'00.460	1.067	0.167	107.178
13	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	1'01.027	1.634	0.567	106.182
View full results

What happened in Q2?

In the 12-car session that followed, Power set the pace, 0.0585s ahead of Herta. McLaughlin was a tenth back in third, ahead of Grosjean, Pagenaud and Veekay.

Knocked out at this point were Dixon, Ericsson, Newgarden, Palou, Rahal and Kirkwood.

St Petersburg IndyCar Q2 results: Power fastest from Herta

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Will Power	Team Penske	7	59.346			109.189
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	6	59.405	0.058	0.058	109.082
3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	7	59.515	0.169	0.110	108.879
4	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	6	59.555	0.209	0.040	108.805
5	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	7	59.588	0.241	0.032	108.747
6	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	8	59.623	0.276	0.035	108.683
7	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	7	59.757	0.411	0.134	108.438
8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	59.824	0.477	0.066	108.318
9	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	7	59.886	0.539	0.062	108.205
10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	7	59.958	0.611	0.072	108.075
11	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	8	59.987	0.640	0.028	108.023
12	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	6	1'00.261	0.915	0.274	107.531
View full results

What happened in the Fast Six?

McLaughlin scored his first-ever IndyCar pole, his previous best start in the series being fifth, taking the top spot by 0.1237s from Power.

“Last year was P20,” reflected Power, who set a track record in Q2. “I was very happy until the last run, I was P1, P1… P2.”

Herta was third, two tenths off pole, ahead of Veekay, Grosjean and Pagenaud.

St Petersburg IndyCar Q3 results: McLaughlin takes pole

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	3	59.482			108.940
2	Will Power	Team Penske	4	59.605	0.123	0.123	108.714
3	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	4	59.710	0.228	0.104	108.524
4	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	4	59.810	0.328	0.099	108.343
5	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	4	59.811	0.329	0.001	108.340
6	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	3	1'00.204	0.722	0.392	107.634
View full results