The 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season begins this weekend
with the Firestone Grand Prix at St. Petersburg through the streets of downtown
St. Petersburg and the runway of Albert Whitted Airport. This marks the ninth
time the series has opened its season on the Florida city’s streets, and eighth
consecutive year, dating back to 2011.
Robert Wickens earned the pole Saturday, March 10, in the No. 6 Dallara/Honda, driving for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Wickens is making his series debut this weekend.
Verizon IndyCar
Series Qualifying – Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
- Robert Wickens recorded his first career pole position for
his first IndyCar Series race.
- Wickens is the third driver since 1993 to win an Indy car
pole position for his first race. Nigel Mansell won the pole and his first
race, the Australian FAI Indy Car Grand Prix in Surfers Paradise, Queensland,
Australia, during the 1993 CART season, while Sebastien Bourdais won the pole
position in his first race, the CART-sanctioned Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in
2003.
- Wickens is the first Canadian to win a pole position since
James Hinchcliffe claimed the pole for the 2016 Indianapolis 500.
- Wickens is the first Canadian to win a pole position for
the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
- Wickens is the 10th driver to win a pole position for the
Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (includes 13 races in IndyCar Series and one race
in CART).
- Wickens is the first driver to win a pole position driving
the No. 6 since Ryan Briscoe at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, in
2010.
- This is the first pole position for Schmidt Peterson
Motorsports at St. Petersburg.
- Wickens will be the first driver to pilot the No. 6 in
IndyCar Series competition since J.R. Hildebrand in the 2016 Indianapolis 500.
The last driver to win a race driving the No. 6 was Briscoe in the 2010 race at
Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
- This is Honda’s first IndyCar Series pole Alexander Rossi
won the pole last season at Watkins Glen International. Rossi was the last
Honda driver to win a race from the pole, also at Watkins Glen.
- Will Power qualified second. For Power, this marks his
eighth front row start in 10 races in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Power
holds the record for most pole positions for the event, with six.
- Rookies Matheus Leist (Brazil), driving for A.J. Foyt
Racing, and Jordan King (United Kingdom), driving for Ed Carpenter racing, will
start their first career IndyCar Series races third and fourth, respectively.
Three of the top four drivers are making their series debuts, and made their
first Firestone Fast Six.
- Takuma Sato, the 2014 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
polesitter, will start fifth. It is the second consecutive season and third
time in four years Sato has started fifth at St. Petersburg. Sato will be
competing in his first race for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing since the 2012
season finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
- Ryan Hunter-Reay, in the highest-starting Andretti
Autosport entry, will start sixth. This is the highest Hunter-Reay will start
since the second race of the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit at The Raceway at Belle
Isle last June.
- The top six drivers all represent different countries: Canada,
Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.
- Tony Kanaan will start 10th, his first top-10 start since
last season’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
- Josef Newgarden’s qualifying time was officially the
fastest, as drivers in the Elimination Round 2 and the Firestone Fast Six
failed to provide faster times than their results in Elimination Round 1.
- Defending race winner Sebastien Bourdais will start 14th.
- Others making their first starts in the Grand Prix of St.
Petersburg are Zach Veach (15th); Jack Harvey (19th); Zachary Claman De Melo
(22nd); and Rene Binder (23rd).
- Max Chilton will start 20th. Chilton is the first driver
to compete in No. 59 since E.J. Viso in the Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky
Speedway in Sparta in 2011.
- Graham Rahal will start last (24th), after spinning during
his session. Rahal most recently started last during the 2017 Honda Indy Grand
Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham (finished 13th).
- The last driver to win after starting last was Sebastien
Bourdais, in last year’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
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