Qualifying for the first race of a new season can always though up unexpected variables and Saturday afternoon’s first round of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series proved to be a case in point.
Almost completely out of left field, the man sitting in pole position for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a rookie and a tin-top DTM refugee to boot. Yes, it was rookie Robert Wickens who took pole position on his IndyCar debut.
The St Petersburg street circuit can be tricky in normal conditions but after a light rain shower spiced up the proceedings during the Firestone Fast Six, no one seemed to notice Wickens slipping a lap in where he managed to perfectly hook up all three sectors of the track to claim the pole for Sunday's 110-lap race.
And Wickens' times of 1m 1.6643s (105.085 mph) was good enough to put his #6 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports DW12 Honda on pole ahead of St Pete qualifying expert Will Power by less than a tenth of a second, despite the Aussie having six previous St Pete GP pole honour in his trophy cabinet. In a case of déjà vu, Wickens became the first driver to take pole position in his maiden IndyCar race since Sébastien Bourdais did in 2003 – also at St. Petersburg…
"It was just chaos – half wet, half dry," said the 28 year-old Canadian. "I like those conditions a lot. Thankfully, I'm starting from pole position. Way better than I ever expected my first IndyCar race to be, but I'm definitely not complaining with it."
With all cars sporting the new look universal aero kit for the first time, which brought with it, its own set of unique problems for the drivers, the free practice sessions had been a roller-coaster ride for most of the field as they came to grips with the general lack of down force; “oversteer can be such a bitch…” as one driver put it!
And with the unpredictability of the track and the local conditions, the large St Pete crowd saw three of the rookies (all making their series’ debuts) – Wickens, Formula 2 exile Jordan King and Matheus "Matt" Leist – all make it to the Firestone Fast Six.
For King there was also the knowledge that he set a new lap record for the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street track in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 1m 00.0476s (107.914 mph), taking care of Power's 2016 mark by just 0.02s. Of course the Aussie tried his best, managing to set a time of 1m 01.7346s in his #12 Team Penske Chevy but that was only good enough for second spot alongside Wickens on the front row of the grid.
"I had a big mis-shift during my [best] lap where I just got stuck in gear for quite a while," Power added. "Then when I saw how tight it was, it was like, 'Yeah, probably lost a tenth or so there.' But fantastic job by Wickens, first time out, to get pole. Just shows kind of the parity within the series, now that everyone has got the same body kit. Yeah, pretty impressive, though, all those guys up in front there, first time out… three [rookies] in the Fast Six is very impressive."
Leist ended up third in his #4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevy (1m 01.7631s; 104.917 mph), ahead of King, in the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy by just 0.0002s! 2014 St. Pete pole sitter Takuma Sato was fifth in his #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda with a time of 1m 01.8821s, with Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay sixth in the #28 Honda who set the slowest lap time in the Fast Six with a 1m 02.0385s.
Hunter-Reay's teammates, Marco Andretti and Alexander Rossi both failed to make it out of the earlier qualifying rounds after they were penalised for “qualifying interference”. Marco Andretti would have at least advanced from the first round and Rossi could have made the Fast Six had their fastest two laps not been deleted as a result of the penalties.
Also losing out on the Fast Six was four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon who saw his string of nine straight Fast Six runs come to an abrupt end with his ninth placed starting position for Sunday’s race.
2017 St Pete GP winner Bourdais was right down the field in 14th in his #18 Dale Coyne Racing DW12 Honda. And spare some thought for Graham Rahal in his #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda who starts last in the 24-car field after having both his best laps eliminated for causing a red flag in the first round when his car spun in Turn 10.
Qualifying Positions for 2018 Firestone St Petersburg Grand Prix
1. Robert Wickens (Honda), 01m 01.6643s (105.085mph)
2. Will Power (Chevrolet), 01m 01.7346s
3. Matheus Leist (Chevrolet), 01m 01.7631s
4. Jordan King (Chevrolet), 01m 01.7633s
5. Takuma Sato (Honda), 01m 01.8821s
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 01m 02.0385s
7. James Hinchcliffe (Honda), 01m 00.9986s
8. Gabby Chaves (Chevrolet), 01m 01.1191s
9. Scott Dixon (Honda), 01m 01.6527s
10. Tony Kanaan (Chevrolet), 01m 01.7213s
11. Simon Pagenaud (Chevrolet), 01m 04.6739s
12. Alexander Rossi (Honda), 01m 07.0377s
13. Josef Newgarden (Chevrolet), 01m 00.4320s
14. Sébastien Bourdais (Honda), 01m 00.9587s
15. Zach Veach (Honda), 01m 00.4585s
16. Spencer Pigot (Chevrolet), 01m 00.9668s
17. Ed Jones (Honda), 01m 00.5009s
18. Marco Andretti (Honda), 01m 01.3013s
19. Jack Harvey (Honda), 01m 01.0270s
20. Max Chilton (Chevrolet), 01m 01.3360s
21. Charlie Kimball (Chevrolet), 01m 01.1868s
22. Zachary Claman De Melo (Honda), 01m 01.8567s
23. Rene Binder (Chevrolet), 01m 01.7003s
24. Graham Rahal (Honda), 01m 04.0990s
Discussion about this post