Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global
Qualifying report

Power claims first pole of the new season at St. Pete

Power posted a best lap of 1 minute, 1.2070 seconds in the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six session that culminated the three rounds of knockout qualifications

Pole winner Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet celebrates

Pole winner Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet celebrates

Eric Gilbert

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Saturday, March 23, 2013) - Will Power earned his fourth consecutive pole for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg -- and the inaugural Verizon P1 Award.

Pole winner Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet celebrates
Pole winner Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet celebrates

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Power posted a best lap of 1 minute, 1.2070 seconds in the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six session that culminated the three rounds of knockout qualifications for the IZOD IndyCar Series race on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit. It bested his 2012 pole lap (1:01.3727).

While that might have been expected, the Firestone Fast Six lineup and the remainder of how the starting order for the season opener shook out was a bit surprising.

• Takuma Sato, competing for his third team in the past three seasons and making his 50th series start, will start on the front row for the first time since Edmonton in 2011. Driving the Honda-powered No. 14 ABC Supply car for A.J. Foyt Racing, he tied Mike Conway (Baltimore 2012) for the team's best qualifying effort in many years.

• Simona de Silvestro, entering her fourth IZOD IndyCar Series season and making her first start for KV Racing Technology and with Chevrolet power, qualified for her first Firestone Fast Six and will start on the inside of Row 2. It's a career best (previous best of seventh in 2010 at Edmonton).

• Tristan Vautier, the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights champion, kicking off his IZOD IndyCar Series career with a Firestone Fast Six appearance and starting sixth in the No. 55 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car. He won the Firestone Indy Lights and Star Mazda races at St. Petersburg in the past two years.

Five different teams are represented on the first three rows of the grid for the 110-lap race (noon ET March 24 on NBC Sports Network).

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "I thought it was going to be very tight. It's very tight on new tires but we made a few changes for the last run and it was good to see some new people up there. Like Simona, that's very cool, but I always knew, everyone always knew she was quick. Sato, we all know he's fast, so that's what you would expect." (About what to expect from the race tomorrow): "I think it will have a lot to do with the weather. It depends on how the weather is, and it's a pretty straightforward race. It's great for us, if not, it's just going to be one of the typical mixed-up IndyCar races where no one knows who's going to win. We just have to be smart and keep heading towards what we've wanted for a long time, which is a championship."

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva KVRT Chevrolet): ""It's awesome. The whole weekend has been going really well for us and It's really cool to finally get the results we wanted. Thanks to KV Racing Technology for giving me the opportunity. And the whole Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign to be supporting me after the year we had last year. It's cool to get the results. It's unbelievable. We were right there with Will and Sato who are usually are always up there and it's fun to be up there with them."

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet): "Unfortunately, we had some issues yesterday and today we made some mistakes and at this point in the game, you can't make mistakes. Fifth is the same position we started last year, and hopefully, we can finish in the same position as last year."

TRISTAN VAUTIER (No. 55 Florida Lottery c/w Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "I think looking at everyone, I think the chassis, we all struggled so much with the balance that there's so much work on this side that I don't really focus on whether my engine is the best or not. I am happy with what we have. We have a lot of work on the car so we focused on that. Honda has been good." (Don't you win your debut race?) "I did the last two championships I did. Obviously, this one will is a little bit tougher, I think as the times should show. It did happen in the last two championships I did, but this one is going to be much tougher."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): "Between Will and I it's always getting close for us this weekend and unfortunately no we didn't get the fastest. I am really glad for the team to get the 2nd position for the season-starter. it's really perfect."(Night and day between this year and last year) "Well obviously the team worked really hard over the course of the winter testing and and I've done the preparation as much as I could. The last three weeks testing, including Sebring and Barber, have been very very progressive. So I think we made a good improvement and I'm really happy to show the improvement over the course of the qualifying. We had a good car on the long runs so hopefully tomorrow we will be challenging for the winning."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 1 DHL Chevrolet): "This morning we got aggressive with the setup and we tried some things that didn't really work, so we went back on it for qualifying and didn't quite hit the sweet spot. We were only a couple tenths off. Looks like we were less than a tenth off from being in the Firestone Fast Six. As usual it's tight - if you miss it by a hair, you're going to be on the outside looking in. Eighth is in the top 10 - we can start from there and still race for the win. Optimistic about that, just disappointed that we didn't get the DHL Chevy into the top six."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "We have just been a bit behind in getting the Target cars up to speed here this weekend for some reason. I keep finding myself fighting understeer in the car. We have another day to work on it and will definitely be working on some solutions before morning warm-up tomorrow."

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): ""We had a slow start to the weekend but we are moving in the right direction. But it's frustrating not being up there where we want to be. We're struggling with the car a bit and made some small gains today. I think we'll be able to improve both cars a bit over night. I had a car that had too much oversteer in the first session, and we tried something to correct that and it just produced understeer. We'll continue to work hard and see what we can come up with for the Target car tomorrow."

TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVRT-SH Racing Chevrolet): "It's a shame. We had very good momentum going on the #11, the Chevy power was great and the Firestone tires help up well. I had a Top-Five car, but we made a minor change between the qualifying sessions that did not go our way, leaving us back in 11th on the grid. Well, tomorrow is another day and I'm sure we'll be fine when the green flag flies."

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Honda): "It was a pretty good qualifying effort. It was the first time we've run red's this year. We have a really good race car and we're further ahead than where we were this time, last year. The field is so competitive, I think it's going to be about strategy, running smart-laps and getting the fuel mileage you need in the race tomorrow. I have a lot of confidence in the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen crew, especially in pit lane, so we'll be good."

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): "We had an OK qualifying session. It would have been great to advance. I think we lost a little bit of time from the practice session to qualifying. This is the first race of the season and we have a lot to learn. Hopefully, we can learn a few more things in the warm-up session that will help us in both the race and the other street courses we're going to later this season."

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda): "We had some control issues on the throttle during qualifying. Last year we started 16th with an engine change and this year we are stronger. I believe that the tough moments make us stronger. We had a difficult weekend but I'm very happy with the handling of the car. I hope we have a strong race and put on a good show for the fans."

ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "That was the first time we had been on the red Firestone tires, so we are still learning how they handle them. We have been talking about how we can use the reds in the race too. The grip level is good with red tires but they change later in the stint. We just need to see how we can be prepared for the race. We are getting some good grip on the rear tires, but we had some understeer in the low speed corners. So we need to work in that area for Sunday. Boy, it is competitive out there. There was just over one second in the top 12 in the that first qualifying group. That makes it hard to move up when the field is that tight. This is just a highly-competitive series."

JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I've got to thank everyone at Dale Coyne Racing for working so hard this weekend. We've not been quick enough, but we've kept plugging away, trying to figure out how to make the Sonny's Bar-B-Q Honda work with the new Firestone tire. We're mid-pack right now, but hopefully we can keep making improvements. Our focus now is on having a strong race tomorrow."

ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 98 Barracuda Racing Honda): ""We're still working to find that balance out there on the Barracuda No. 98. Firestone has brought us a new tire this year for the street circuits and it feels like we need to keep working to find what this tire likes compared to last year's. Overall, it has been great to get back from the offseason, and looking forward to a strong race tomorrow."

E.J. VISO (No. 5 Team Venezuela/Andretti Autosport/HVM Chevrolet): "Well it was a tough day today especially with the morning we had. Something failed in the practice session this morning, and we could only get a couple laps - it was tough to recover. Qualifying didn't go the way we wanted either and we're missing a lot of downforce in the car which made the car understeer like crazy. I'm happy for my teammates, though, they did a good job; James (Hinchcliffe) is starting top six. I really think tomorrow will be a good day. There are plenty of variables that can affect us, including the weather, but I totally trust the strategies that Andretti is going to put together for tomorrow's race.

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 RC Cola Chevrolet): ""We had a good team effort today. I would have liked to see something in the Firestone Fast Six, but it takes so much to get everything right. The tires are pretty finicky, so that can make things pretty interesting for days like this. We will make some adjustments tonight, and come back tomorrow ready to go."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet): "It was sort of the big first challenge for the weekend for us was our first qualifying of the year. It's a big unknown, and obviously it was the Firestone Reds because we had no opportunity to test on them or practice with them. The first time you get to drive them is really when it counts in qualifying. So to go out there and get a start for the GoDaddy car, we're pretty pleased. I would have liked to have seen a few more of my teammates in the Fast Six, but we'll get together tonight and put our heads together and try to make a good race car, because, obviously, we didn't quite have enough in qualifying. Will was outrageously quick to get on the pole and everybody. It's a good group up here for the Fast Six. So just happy to be in the first two rows of the first race."

INDYCAR

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article De Silvestro will start third at St. Pete while Kanaan slots 11th for season opener
Next article Sato qualifies on front row for St. Petersburg season opener

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global