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| Will Power continues his charge for the all-time lead in pole position |
This is the fourth time Team Penske has swept the front row at St. Petersburg and the team has won each of the prior three times it swept the front row. However, in each of the prior three front row sweeps the winner was not one of the drivers that started on the front row. In 2012, Will Power and Ryan Briscoe were on the front row but it was Hélio Castroneves who won the race from sixth. Three years later, Power and Pagenaued were on row one but Juan Pablo Montoya won from fourth. The following year Pagenaud and Castroneves were on the front row after Power was sidelined due to his inner-ear condition but Montoya again won from fourth.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified ahead of teammate Scott Dixon on his IndyCar debut with Rosenqvist ending up third, one position ahead of Dixon. The most recent IndyCar victory for a Swedish driver was Kenny Bräck on November 17, 2002 at Mexico City, 5,957 days ago. Bräck is the only Swedish driver with a victory in IndyCar history and he won nine races. Stefan Johansson, the agent for both Rosenqvist and Dixon, finished third place four times in his IndyCar career. Rosenqivst has not won a season opener since the first race of the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship season at Silverstone. This is the sixth consecutive season Dixon has started in the top ten at St. Petersburg. In the last ten season openers, Dixon has been the top Ganassi finish in seven of them. The exceptions were in 2009 and 2011 when Dario Franchitti was the top finisher and 2015 when Tony Kanaan the top finisher.
Penske swept row one, Ganassi swept row two and Andretti Autosport swept row three with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi. Hunter-Reay has four podium finishes at St. Petersburg, level with Belle Isle and behind only Iowa, where he has five podium finishes. He has led only eight laps in 12 St. Petersburg starts including one lap last year. This is Rossi's best starting position at St. Petersburg. His previous best was eight in 2017. Rossi has improved on his St. Petersburg finish each year after he finished 12th as a rookie, 11th as a sophomore and third in his third season. Hunter-Reay and Rossi have led a combined 13 laps at St. Petersburg.
Jack Harvey will start a career best seventh after he advanced to the second round of qualifying for the first time of his IndyCar career. His previous best was 13th at Portland last year. Charlie Kimball qualified eighth, his best starting position in this race. This is Kimball's first top ten starting position since he started fifth at Watkins Glen in 2017. Kimball has finished on the lead lap twice at St. Petersburg. He did it in 2012 and 2013. James Hinchcliffe will start ninth. Hinchcliffe has not started in the top five since he started fourth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last year. Graham Rahal rounded out the top ten. Rahal's runner-up finish in last year's St. Petersburg race was only the second time he has finished in the top ten in the season opener. In 2009, he finished seventh in the season opener from St. Petersburg after he started on pole position.
Colton Herta was set to advance to the final round of qualifying but he was penalized and lost his best two laps after he was deemed to have impeded Kimball during the second round of qualifying. Instead of starting in the top six, he will start 11th with fellow rookie Ben Hanley joining him on row six. Hanley has been at the bottom all weekend but a clumsy group one session in round one where two red flags occurred, Hanley advanced while a few other drivers failed to put in an official lap let alone a flyer. Herta could become the youngest winner in IndyCar history in any one of the first nine races this season. Graham Rahal holds the record at 19 years, three months and two days. Herta does not turn 19 years old until March 30th. His father Bryan was 28 years, three months and 21 days old when he won his first career race at Laguna Seca in 1998.
Simon Pagenaud was one of those drivers caught out in group one and while he got a time on the board, he will have to start 13th. This is the third consecutive year and sixth time in eight St. Petersburg appearances Pagenaud will start outside the top ten. He qualified second on the other two occasions. Zach Veach joins Pagenaud on row seven, one starting position better than he had in this race last year.
Ed Jones and Spencer Pigot make up an all-Ed Carpenter Racing row eight. St. Petersburg is one of two tracks where Jones has finished in top ten in every one of his starts. The other two are Long Beach and Road America. Pigot's average finish on street courses last year was 16.6 with his best finish being tenth at Belle Isle. In 14 street course starts over his entire career, his average finish is a marginally better 16.285 with his best finish being eighth at Long Beach in 2017. Ed Carpenter Racing has only one top ten finish in the season opener in the team's history and it was Luca Filippi, who finished ninth in the 2015 season opener when the team was under the CFH Racing name.
Marco Andretti's team failed to get the fuel line connected and he was unable to complete a lap in qualifying. Fortunately for him, since he was one of four drivers from group one not to complete a lap, he will start 17th based on qualification order. Andretti has finished on the podium in the season opener twice in his career. He was the runner-up finisher to Dixon at Homestead in 2008 and he finished third at St. Petersburg in 2013 behind Hinchcliffe and Castroneves. The last time an Andretti won the season opener was his father Michael at Homestead in 1998. Marcus Ericsson will start 18th in his IndyCar debut. Ericsson started 19th in his Formula One debut at Melbourne in 2014 and he finished 17th in that race.
Sébastien Bourdais was unable to register a lap in group one and he will start 19th. Bourdais has won the last two years at St. Petersburg and he is already one of 22 drivers to have won three consecutive races at one track. He did it at Long Beach from 2005 to 2007. He could become the sixth driver to win three consecutive races at multiple tracks. Ralph DePalma, A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti each won at least three consecutive races at three different tracks. DePalma did it at Elgin, Sheepshead Bay and Speedway Park. Foyt won four consecutive races at DuQuoin and five consecutive races at Trenton to go along with a streak of three consecutive victories at Texas World. Andretti won four consecutive races at Mont-Tremblant and had three-peats at Indianapolis Raceway Park's road course and Trenton. Al Unser, Jr. had two separate three-peats at Long Beach and Vancouver and Dixon had a three-peat at Watkins Glen and at Nashville.
Takuma Sato was set to advance to round two but he lost his fastest lap for causing a local yellow and instead he will start 20th, the worst starting position of his career at St. Petersburg. He had six consecutive top ten starts in this race entering the weekend. The driver that advanced at the hands of Sato's penalty was Scott Dixon.
A.J. Foyt Racing swept row 11 with Tony Kanaan starting ahead of Matheus Leist. A.J. Foyt Racing's best finish at St. Petersburg was sixth in the 2016 race with Takuma Sato. The team has not had a top five finish in the season opener since Vitor Meira finished third at São Paulo in 2010.
Santino Ferrucci caused one of the two red flags in group one and he will start 23rd. Ferrucci could become the second Connecticut-born driver to win in IndyCar. Scott Sharp won nine races in his career with his final victory coming on August 14, 2005 at Kentucky. Ferrucci will be 20 years, nine months and ten days old on race day, four days younger than Scott Dixon when Dixon won his first career race. Ferrucci would be the fifth-youngest winner in IndyCar history. Rounding out the grid will be Max Chilton. Chilton's only top ten finish on a street course was seventh at Toronto in 2017. The only top five finish of his IndyCar career was fourth in the 2017 Indianapolis 500.
NBCSN's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:37 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 110 laps.
