Verizon P1 pole winner Will Power gives a thumbs-up signal after applying the P1 decal to his rear wing. [Joe Jennings Photo]
By Joe Jennings
St. Petersburg, Fla. – Will Power led a Team Penske sweep of the top four starting positions for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opening event of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
The Australia native raced to the pole in the waning moments of Firestone Fast 6 qualifications to earn his 43rd career pole and moving him into fifth place on the all-time list. Making his achievement more memorable is that he took his sixth pole in nine tries on this street course and he did it while suffering from stomach flu.
Power made a brief appearance to receive the Verizon P1 Pole Award but within a minute, he had to exit while holding his stomach.
Skipping the post-qualifying press conference, he did issue a statement saying, “What a great run today for the Verizon Chevy team. It’s an awesome feeling to be able to put the new look Verizon car on pole again here at St. Pete. Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling pretty ill all day and it was a struggle to get through qualifying.”
Power’s pole winning time was 1:00.2450 at a speed of 107.561 miles per hour. In round two of qualifications, he set a track record of 1:00.0658.
Trailing Power closely was Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves and 2015 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya.
Scott Dixon earned the fifth fastest time and Ryan Hunter-Reay was sixth, the fastest Honda driver.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Qualifying Saturday for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 1.8-mile St Petersburg street circuit, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, aero kit-engine, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:00.2450 (107.561) 2. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 01:00.4421 (107.210) 3. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 01:00.4995 (107.108) 4. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 01:00.5312 (107.052) 5. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 01:00.5395 (107.038) 6. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 01:00.8803 (106.438) 7. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:00.5893 (106.950) 8. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 01:00.6711 (106.805) 9. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 01:00.6724 (106.803) 10. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 01:00.7188 (106.721) 11. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:00.9745 (106.274) 12. (21) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:01.0571 (106.130) 13. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 01:01.1856 (105.907) 14. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 01:01.0433 (106.154) 15. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 01:01.2417 (105.810) 16. (19) Luca Filippi, Honda, 01:01.1699 (105.934) 17. (8) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 01:01.5372 (105.302) 18. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 01:01.2934 (105.721) 19. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:01.5794 (105.230) 20. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 01:01.3414 (105.638) 21. (18) Conor Daly, Honda, 01:01.9385 (104.620)
22. (16) Spencer Pigot, Honda, 01:01.3881 (105.558)