Herta beats Harvey for IndyCar pole in St. Petersburg

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The mix of talent vying for pole position at the Firestone Grand Prix in St. Petersburg featured the youngest stars of the NTT IndyCar series and some of its most successful champions, and when it was over, Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport held the P1 for Sunday’s 100. lap race.

Herta’s lap of 1m00.3210s in the # 26 Honda was a far cry from Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing in the # 60 Honda (+ 0.2499s) as the Japanese marque blocked the front row.

“I knew we had a good race car for here,” Herta said. “You just had to go through these two [qualifying] beautiful and clean steps. Really happy for the guys.

Harvey said his fast pace didn’t come as a surprise to him.

“There was a lot of work overnight and I trust everyone in the No.60 crew – they’ve done a really good job all year,” he said. “We felt confident arriving this weekend due to how it has traditionally been for us in the past. The # 60 Honda AutoNation / SiriusXM looked really strong. I can’t wait to share the front row with our pseudo-teammate. I just want to have a good start to the race and then we’ll go from there.

The second row was an all-Penske affair run by Josef Newgarden in Chevy # 2 (+ 0.2868s) and Simon Pagenaud in Chevy # 22 (+ 0.3143s).

Repeating his strong performance from last year, Sébastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing got the P5 with the No.14 Chevy (+ 0.6807s), and Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP, the polesitter there is a week at Barber, completed the Firestone Fast Six. in Chevy # 5 when his team chose to keep him on the slower primary tires for the session (+ 0.7589s).

MSR’s Harvey was the revelation of qualifying and came seconds after celebrating his first IndyCar pole, but in typical Herta fashion, one almighty final lap stole the spot while opening a giant gap of almost a quarter of a second on the short 1.8 mile. circuit.

Apart from those who made it to the Firestone Fast Six or Fast 12, the other main story from qualifying involved those who were not part of the conversation as Will Power, nine-time pole winner in St. Petersburg, took had a hard time getting to 20th place.

Herta was the only Andretti driver to do the Fast Six; next was Alexander Rossi in P11. The four drivers of Chip Ganassi Racing failed to make the Fast Six with Scott Dixon closing in on P8; his teammate Alex Palou, winner of the Barber, finished 10th.

AS IT HAPPENED

In the 10 minute opening session where half the peloton got out and six moved forward in the Firestone Fast 12, it was crazy business as the riders scrambled to find grip and dealt with slippery cars and, in Scott Dixon’s case, a 90-degree spin that annoyed a driver slightly and cost the reigning Series champion his best lap.

Despite the penalty, the Ganassi rider was able to cling to the bottom of the transfer list led by Rossi d’Andretti, who clocked a fastest lap of 1m00.2949 on the # 27 Honda. Behind Rossi, it was his teammate Herta, O’Ward from AMSP, Pagenaud de Penske, Bourdais de Foyt and Dixon who were heading towards the Fast 12.

Ryan Hunter-Reay also spun and brought out a local yellow, which cost driver Andretti his fastest lap and put him at the front of the group including Takuma Sato of RLL, Felix Rosenqvist of AMSP, Conor Daly of Ed Carpenter Racing, Ed Jones of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan and Jimmie Johnson of Ganassi finishing.

In the second 10-minute session where the other half of the peloton came out and six went forward in the Firestone Fast 12, a last minute of intense action saw P1 change five times with Penske’s Newgarden coming out as the last to occupy the place with a Tour of 1m00.4437s.

In second to sixth place were Graham Rahal of RLL, Harvey of MSR, Rinus VeeKay of ECR, Hinchcliffe of Andretti and Alex Palou of Ganassi. The big shock came with Penske’s Power – a nine-time pole winner at St. Pete who was far from making the cut, scored the wall and ended his session with a spin after bending the back toe link law.

“It’s crazy to go from one of the best cars on Friday to one of the worst on Saturday,” Power said.

Power teammate Scott McLaughlin was the first to miss the cup, and he was followed by Marcus Ericsson of Ganassi, Dale Coyne Racing with Romain Grosjean of Rick Ware Racing, Power, Max Chilton of Carlin Racing and Dalton Kellett de Foyt.

In the Firestone Fast 12 where the first six would be transferred, Colton Herta set the fastest lap with a 1m00.2207s in his No.26 Andretti Honda. The familiar flurry in the last minute, Dixon of CGR was knocked out of the transfer squad at the last second with VeeKay, leaving Newgarden of Penske, Bourdais of Foyt, O’Ward of AMSP, Harvey of MSR and Pagenaud of Think like the happy members of Firestone Fast. Six.

This meant ECR’s Veekay led the group from P7 to P12, with Dixon, Rahal of RLL, Palou winning over Barber, a surprised teammate from Rossi and Andretti Hinchcliffe completing the front half of the grid.

TAKEAWAYS

Fastest rider: Colton Herta, 1m00.3210s

Slowest driver: Dalton Kellett, 1m02.3396s

Notices to note:

• He narrowly missed the Fast Six, but ECR’s Rinus VeeKay is showing something in his second season. He will start P7 while his teammate Daly will take 10 places in P17.

• Although promising at times during practice, the DCR duo of Romain Grosjean and Ed Jones are set for a long run at the front of the field starting at P18 and P21, respectively.

• We couldn’t see AMSP’s O’Ward and Rosenqvist face off in a spotless qualifying session at Barber after the Swede started at the last corner and lost his best lap, but without any obstacles in St Pete, that was a surprise. to see such a big gap between O’Ward in P6 and his new teammate in P17.

• Continuing the theme of small teams exceeding their weight in qualifying, Mike Shank and Jim Meyer must be delighted to see Harvey start first in the home race for one of his biggest partners, AutoNation. And after a great day at MSR, city favorite Sébastien Bourdais made more waves for the rebuilding Foyt team. When the team’s order in the Fast Six is ​​Andretti, MSR, Penske, Penske, Foyt and AMSP, it’s time to congratulate the group’s outperformers.

• Surprising change in the space of seven days as CGR’s Ericsson went from Fast Six (in P6) to being well adrift to St. Pete in P16.

• In the Jimmie Johnson vs. Dalton Kellett qualifying wars, it was 2-0 in favor of the CGR rookie who started 23rd out of 24 cars present.

• Difficult start to the season for Max Chilton who started P20 at Barber and has just clinched P22 for the second round.

FOLLOWING: Warm-up, 9:05 a.m. to 9:35 a.m. ET, on Peacock

RESULTS



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