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| The rookies are doing alright and this one leads the field to the first green flag of 2018 |
Robert Wickens starts his IndyCar career from pole position. The Canadian driver of the #6 Honda ran a 1:01.6643 lap, the fastest lap in the final session of qualifying and in doing so he is in elite company. Wickens becomes the third driver since 1956 to win pole position in his first race joining Nigel Mansell in 1993 at Surfers Paradise and Sébastien Bourdais in 2003 at St. Petersburg. Wickens is attempting to become the first driver to win on debut since Buzz Calkins won on January 21, 1996 at Orlando, the first race of the Indy Racing League. Wickens won five pole positions in his Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters career and won from pole position twice. He could become the first Canadian to win from pole position since Paul Tracy at Cleveland on June 16, 2005. Will Power starts beside the Canadian on the front row. This is Power's ninth time qualifying on the front row in 11 St. Petersburg appearances. He has never qualified outside the top six at St. Petersburg. Power has won from second on the grid twice in his career but both occurred in Canada, Toronto 2010 and Edmonton 2011.
Row two features two rookies with Jordan King starting third and Matheus Leist starting fourth. King's third place position on the grid is Ed Carpenter Racing's best starting position on a road/street course since Josef Newgarden started third at Mid-Ohio. His best starting position last year in Formula Two was third at the Hungaroring. King broke the track record in his round one group two with a lap at 1:00.0476. Leist started fourth on his Indy Lights debut last year at St. Petersburg but he retired from the race after losing power. Takuma Sato and Ryan Hunter-Reay will start on row three. Sato started and finished fifth in last year's St. Petersburg race and this is the third time in four years Sato has started fifth for this race. He has six consecutive starts in the top ten at St. Petersburg. This is Hunter-Reay's fifth time starting in the top six at St. Petersburg in 11 starts. Hunter-Reay has five top ten finishes in six St. Petersburg races during the DW12-era and four of those are top five finishes.
James Hinchcliffe will start seventh. This is the sixth time Hinchcliffe has started seventh in his career. In his five previous seventh-place starts Hinchcliffe has never finished better than his starting position with his best finish being eighth. Gabby Chaves matches his career-best starting position in eighth position. This is Chaves' best starting position on a road/street course. His previous best road/street course start was 15th at Belle Isle II in 2016. This is Chaves' first time racing at St. Petersburg since 2015. On row five are former Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. Dixon was the only driver to make the Fast Six session on all nine occasions last season. The next closest drivers were Power and Hélio Castroneves each with seven Fast Six appearances. Dixon started ninth at St. Petersburg in 2015 and finished 15th that day. Kanaan finished 12th in last year's race, only the second time in 13 St. Petersburg race he did not finish in the top ten. Dixon and Kanaan are tied for most St. Petersburg starts on 13 apiece.
Simon Pagenaud starts outside the top ten for the second consecutive year at St. Petersburg with the Frenchman rolling off from 11th position besides Alexander Rossi. Pagenaud has failed to start in the top ten in five of seven St. Petersburg appearances. The furthest back Pagenaud has won from in his career is sixth. Rossi was set to advance to the Fast Six before the Californian was handed a penalty nullifying his fastest two laps in the session. Rossi has finished a lap down in both his St. Petersburg starts. Defending champion Josef Newgarden starts his title defense from 13th on the grid. Newgarden was one of three drivers to advance to round two on all nine occasions last year. The last time Newgarden did not advance from round one of road/street course qualifying was Road America 2016 when he caused a red flag during the session. Newgarden's eighth place finish last year was his best at St. Petersburg. Defending St. Petersburg race winner Sébastien Bourdais starts next to Newgarden on row seven. Bourdais' last three victories have come from starting positions outside the top ten after his first 33 victory had all come from top ten starting positions.
Zach Veach makes his Andretti Autosport debut from 15th on the grid with Spencer Pigot making it an all-American row eight. In six starts at St. Petersburg in Road to Indy competition Veach has a victory, a third, a fifth and three finishes outside the top ten. Pigot has finished outside the top ten in six consecutive starts. Ed Jones makes his Chip Ganassi Racing debut from 17th on the grid with Marco Andretti in 18th. Jones finished tenth in last year's race from 18th on the grid. Jones ended the 2017 season with seven consecutive finishes outside the top ten. Andretti was going to advance to round two before he was penalized for blocking Pigot during his qualifying group. Jack Harvey and Max Chilton make it an all-British and all-new team row ten with the drivers representing Michael Shank Racing and Carlin respectively. This is Harvey's second consecutive race starting 19th while it is Chilton's worst starting spot since he started 20th at Long Beach last year.
Charlie Kimball makes his Carlin debut from 21st on the grid. This is the first time Kimball has started outside the top twenty since he started 23rd at Pocono in 2015 because of an accident in qualifying. Zachary Claman De Melo starts 22nd for his second career IndyCar start. He started 21st on his debut last year at Sonoma. René Binder and Graham Rahal make up the final row of the grid. Binder is set to become the first Austrian to start an IndyCar race since Hubert Stromberger started 27th and finished 16th, one lap down at Road America on July 9, 1995. He will be the fifth Austrian to start an IndyCar race. The only Austrian with a top ten finish in IndyCar was Joe Jagersberger, who finished fifth out of six cars in a race that took place on a 8.1-mile road course in Philadelphia on October 9, 1911. Rahal had his fastest two laps taken off the board after he spun and caused a red flag in his qualifying group. This is Rahal's worst starting position since the 100th Indianapolis 500 when he started 26th.
ABC's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 12:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 110 laps.
