Scott McLaughlin opens the 2025 season with pole position for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. McLaughlin set a lap of 59.4624 seconds in the final round of qualifying, and it is the tenth pole position in his career. It is the New Zealander's second pole position for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. McLaughlin won the 2022 pole position, and then he won the race. Last year, he led IndyCar with five pole positions. None of those came at a street course. McLaughlin had an average finish of 22.25 on street courses last year with his best result being 16th at Toronto
Colton Herta joins McLaughlin on the front row after falling 0.1759 seconds off the Penske driver. Herta has finished in the top five in three of the last four St. Petersburg races, including a victory in 2021. This will be Herta's 100th career IndyCar start. Herta will be the second-youngest driver to reach 100 starts. Only Graham Rahal reached 100 starts at a younger age. Rahal and Herta are the only drivers to start 100 races before turning 25 years old.
Felix Rosenqvist leads an all-Meyer Shank Racing row two, as Rosenqvist put up the third-best time in the final round, 0.2365 seconds slower than McLaughlin. This is the second consecutive year Rosenqvist has started in the top three at St. Petersburg. His fifth-place result last year was his first top ten finish in this race since he was fourth on debut in 2019.
Marcus Armstrong starts fourth in his first race for MSR, as Armstrong was 0.3654 seconds off the top time. The New Zealander has finished in the top five of the last two IndyCar street races. Only Scott Dixon has a longer active streak of top five finishes on street courses with Dixon on three consecutive street races with a top five result. In each race Armstrong started in the top five last year, he ended up finishing 26th in the race.
Speaking of Scott Dixon, he qualified fifth, the third New Zealander in the top five spots. Dixon was 0.4039 seconds slower than his fellow Kiwi McLaughlin. Dixon has made 20 starts at St. Petersburg. There are only five other tracks where Dixon has started more than 20 races, Texas (25), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (22), Belle Isle (21), Iowa (21) and Mid-Ohio (21). Along with St. Petersburg, Iowa is the only other track Dixon has not won at.
Christian Lundgaard begins his Arrow McLaren tenure as the best starting driver among the three-car effort as Lundgaard qualified sixth. His previous best starting position at St. Petersburg was 11th in 2023. Last season, Lundgaard's only top ten finish on a street course was seventh at Toronto. The Dane had multiple top ten finishes in street races in his first two full IndyCar seasons.
Marcus Ericsson was 0.0038 seconds short of advancing to the final round of qualifying. Starting seventh, this is the fourth consecutive year Ericsson has started in the top ten at St. Petersburg. The Swede's retirement in last year's St. Petersburg race ended a streak of four consecutive top ten finishes at the track.
Álex Palou missed out on a top six starting spot by 0.0367 seconds, and Palou will begin his title defense in eighth. Palou has seven top five finishes in his last eight street course starts. He has 15 top ten finishes in 18 street course starts with Chip Ganassi Racing. He has finished in the top ten of all four season openers he has raced with Ganassi.
Kyle Kirkwood finds himself in ninth, but Kirkwood was 0.0495 seconds outside the top six at the end of the second round of qualifying. The Floridian had top ten finishes in all four street course races last season. His average finish in street races was 5.75. That was the second-best in IndyCar behind only Scott Dixon's average street course finish of third.
Josef Newgarden starts tenth after being 0.1428 seconds off advancing. Newgarden has finished outside the top fifteen in the last three St. Petersburg races. Prior to that, he had three consecutive podium finishes in this race and five consecutive top ten results. Last season Newgarden's only top ten finish in a street race was fourth at Long Beach. His average street course finish was 16.75.
Nolan Siegel starts the 2025 season in 11th position. This matches Siegel's best career starting position, but this is his best start on a road or street course. His previous best was 16th at Mid-Ohio last year. Siegel won last year's Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg and he was second the year prior to that.
After not starting better than 13th in any race in 2024, Dale Coyne Racing will start 12th in the first race of 2025 with Rinus VeeKay taking the team to the second round of qualifying. This is the first time DCR made the second round of qualifying since Nashville 2023. Despite having 94 drivers race for Dale Coyne Racing prior to VeeKay, VeeKay will be the first Dutch driver to race for the organization.
Will Power fell 0.0179 seconds off advancing from the first group in the first round of qualifying, and this puts Power 13th on the grid for the season opener. It is only the second time Power did not make it out of the first round of qualifying at St. Petersburg. The other year was in 2021. Power has six top ten finishes in his last seven St. Petersburg starts.
Devlin DeFrancesco makes his first IndyCar start in 539 days, and DeFrancesco was 0.084 seconds shy of advancing to the second round of qualifying on his return. The Canadian will start 14th. He had started 18th in his first two St. Petersburg visits. Last year, DeFrancesco competed in only the five IMSA endurance races driving the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini in the GTD class. He was second in class at Petit Le Mans.
Kyffin Simpson starts 15th for the first race of 2025. Last year, Smpson had only one race where he started in the top fifteen. That was 12th at Road America. Simpson is credited with fastest lap in last year's St. Petersburg race after the disqualification of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin.
Louis Foster was the best rookie in qualifying, as Foster will start directly behind his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate DeFrancesco in 16th. Foster has three podium finishes in four Road to Indy starts at St. Petersburg, but he never won at this circuit.
David Malukas was the best A.J. Foyt Racing qualifier in his first weekend with the team, but it has Malukas starting 17th. Malukas was tenth in his most recent St. Petersburg start in 2023. He missed last year's race due to a wrist injury. Malukas was sixth in his most recent street course start last year at Toronto, his only street course race in 2024.
Robert Shwartzman put Prema in 18th for its first IndyCar race. Shwartzman was 0.3674 seconds off advancing from the second qualifying group. He missed most of the Saturday morning practice session due to radio issues. Shwartzman will become the first Israeli driver to start an IndyCar race.
Santino Ferrucci had an off during the first qualifying group, and Ferrucci will start 19th. The Nutmegger enters the 2025 season with four consecutive top ten finishes. Ferrucci has never had five consecutive top ten results. The most recent A.J. Foyt Racing driver to score five consecutive top ten finishes was Eliseo Salazar, who had six consecutive top ten finishes over the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Alexander Rossi's first race in the #20 Chevrolet sees Rossi start 20th. Rossi missed the first turn on his first qualifying run and was unable to have enough time for a proper second run. Rossi has finished sixth or better in four of the last seven St. Petersburg races. In the other three races, Rossi has finished 20th or worse.
Graham Rahal wound up taking 21st on the grid. This will be the second consecutive year Rahal has started on row 11 at St. Petersburg. Dating back to last season, this is the sixth consecutive race Rahal has started outside the top ten. Though the location of his first career victory, Rahal has only one other top five finish at St. Petrsburg in 17 starts, a second in 2018.
Conor Daly makes it four consecutive American drives on the grid in 22nd spot. Daly changed numbers at the last moment prior to first practice, now driving the #76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing, as the team picked up the gas station chain 76 as a sponsor. Daly has an average finish of 16th in six St. Petersburg starts with his best finish being 13th in 2016, his first St. Petersburg start.
Patricio O'Ward ended up 23rd after not advancing from round one. This is O'Ward's worst starting position since he was 25th at Mid-Ohio in 2023. The Mexican has finished on the podium the last two years at St. Petersburg. On four occasions has a driver had at least three consecutive podium results in this race. Tony Kanaan had four consecutive from 2005 to 2008. Hélio Castroneves did it twice from 2006 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2014. Josef Newgarden is the most recent driver to do it, from 2020 to 2022.
Christian Rasmussen finds himself starting 24th for the first race of the season. This is the fourth consecutive race Rasmussen will be starting outside the top twenty. The Dane started outside the top twenty in seven of 14 starts last year. In three of four street races last season, Rasmussen finished 27th. St. Petersburg was the exception, where he finished 19th.
Jacob Abel makes his IndyCar debut from 25th starting spot. Abel will become the first driver alphabetically by last name to start an IndyCar race. Abel will also be the first Kentucky-born driver to start an IndyCar race since Scott Harrington at Michigan on July 28, 2002. Harrington started 25th in that race and finished 21st.
Sting Ray Robb's first race for Juncos Hollinger Racing will start from 26th on the grid. This is the 33rd time in 35 starts Robb is starting outside the top twenty. In nine career street course starts, Robb's average finish is 20th with his best finish being 16th in his first career street race, which was his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg in 2023.
Callum Ilott has the second Prema car starting in 27th. This matches Ilott's worst starting position. He started 27th in the 2023 Indianapolis 500 and finished 12th. Dating back to 2023, Ilott has finished in the top fifteen in his last four starts. Only once has Ilott had five consecutive races with top fifteen results.
Fox's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at noon E.T. with green flag scheduled for 12:29 p.m. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.
