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Qualifying report

St Pete IndyCar: Top 10 quotes after qualifying

Will Power captured the Verizon P1 Pole Award in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet
Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport Honda
Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, crew
Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Alexander Rossi, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda
Alexander Rossi, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda
Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Cla#DriverTimeGapMph
1 12 australia Will Power 1'01.0640   106.118
(On what it takes to have a strong qualifying in St. Petersburg) "It takes obviously a very good team and kind of getting through that first round there. Taking the risk on just doing one lap was good for me, definitely had a bit more meat on the tires in the last round there. We worked on the car too. Made a bit of a wrong setup change there for the last round, and kind of just made it, and went back and did something else. So yeah, very happy to be on pole. It's really tight competition."
2 9 new_zealand Scott Dixon 1'01.2219 0.1579 105.844
"That was just on me unfortunately. We have a super fast car and should have been on pole. I just messed up a little on my fastest lap there. I'm obviously disappointed, but the team has four fast cars. We're working together great with Honda and I can't wait to start the race tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have the GE car up front when it counts." 
3 5 canada James Hinchcliffe 1'01.3039 0.2399 105.703
"Obviously starting off the season strong is huge. Momentum in this sport and any sport really is a key to success, and winning the first one and getting off to that strong start always makes you feel good and keeps the team in the right state of mind. And (my win here in 2013) was the first one in my career, so obviously a pretty emotional day and one that I remember very clearly, and with our best starting spot here, obviously the competition up front is incredible. The Verizon IndyCar Series never fails to disappoint in that sense and congrats to Will and everybody at Honda to really step up their game, and happy to be starting inside of Row 2 and kind of see how it plays out tomorrow." 
4 2 united_states Josef Newgarden 1'01.7229 0.6589 104.985
"I have been told numerous times that this car has been victorious twice in the last two years here. So no pressure, right? Hopefully go get it done. But I think we have a good start. Fourth place, it's the best that I've started around St. Pete here, so I think our guys did a great job. I feel like I didn't maximize that final Firestone Fast Six as much as I could have, but I also don't think I would have gotten Will (Power). I think Will put a really good lap together. He did an awesome job. We've had good cars. I think our race cars off the truck have actually been pretty good, and we haven't had to do much. We've been able to stay inside of our window for the most part this weekend. I'm excited. You know, the next thing for us now and certainly for me is to learn the race car, how it's going to perform over a tire stint. We haven't done much of that, at least I haven't, with the team here at Team Penske, so I'm excited to figure out that portion. As you said, they've had luck with this car in the past, so hopefully it's going to be a strong race car, and I think we can do a good job with the Verizon No. 2 car this weekend, and hopefully we can seal it up for tomorrow." 
5 26 japan Takuma Sato 1'01.9851 0.9211 104.541
"Yes, I'm extremely pleased about today's result, having had a very difficult first day yesterday. The team did fantastic job, pulled everything all together, and I really have to appreciate all my teammates. Obviously they all helped me out to get things put together, obviously extremely strong, hard work, and then obviously the boys did a great job to put everything together on the No. 26 car. Everything really worked well. Up until today's practice, I was still a little bit nervous and didn't get confident in the car. It's such a short time, and having a little tragedy yesterday. But in qualifying, a different type of feeling. I got out first on the red tire, and I was extremely happy in the car. Like (Scott) Dixon said, it's really a great job from Honda over the course of the winter. I know it's a frozen package. We can do very little things, but I think engine development as well as how you try and use the car and the package, I think today is a result that we are really coming back in strong." 
6 10 brazil Tony Kanaan 1'02.0824 1.0184 104.377
 "When I walked in Scott (Dixon) was saying how well he thinks we're all working together and I completely agree. I think the engineers did a great job over the winter when we switched over to Honda. We spent a lot of time focusing on the areas that we didn't think were good last year and I just think we came into this season better prepared. It's great to see that we could put all four cars in the top 10 and we're all really close. I think the four of us with the Honda aero kit are just working really well together."
7 8 united_kingdom Max Chilton 1'01.3516 0.2876 105.621
"I was happy with the Gallagher car and felt I really got everything out of myself. I knew coming into qualifying that we had a fast car for sure. We hit traffic and didn't get through and that was frustrating obviously. I think we could have been fourth in the second segment and advanced, but that's the way it goes sometimes, and we can fight with a good car tomorrow which I'm excited about." 
8 98 united_states Alexander Rossi 1'01.5198 0.4558 105.332
"We had the potential to be in the Firestone Fast Six, but we just didn't put that second lap together to get up there. I think we made a bit of a change in session that wasn't great. All in all, I think this is the best place we've ever started from on a street course, so that's the positive side. I'm disappointed to miss the Firestone Fast Six because I know that we're quickest on the (Firestone primary) blacks in that second run before going to (alternate) reds. I think the potential is there, we just didn't put it together. But, we're still starting inside the top eight, and will fight to take the NAPA Auto Parts Honda to the front."  
9 83 united_states Charlie Kimball 1'01.6066 0.5426 105.184
"I'm disappointed with qualifying ninth. I think coming into the weekend my goal was to qualify in the top 10 and finish in the top five. We're obviously already hitting that goal with starting ninth, but after the last couple of days I think we've been faster than where we're starting tomorrow. We had a problem with the first set of tires we were going to run in Segment 2 so I didn't get a run on that. We had a little too much fuel and I didn't get the lap. I feel badly for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys because the car was better than ninth. These things happen and as Dario says, 'It's all in the recovery' so tomorrow we'll be smart, have good clean pit stops, and go forward when we can." 
10 15 united_states Graham Rahal 1'01.6181 0.5541 105.164
 "Starting 10th is obviously not where we want to be but all things considered, and where we've been this weekend, we knew it was going to take everything we had to advance out of the first group this weekend. When you have guys like Helio (Castroneves) and Simon (Pagenaud) and all these boys in there, you know you have to be at your absolute best to advance. We made it through, but that top 12 was going to be tough for us to advance out of. I felt like I got all of it out of the car honestly. We just need to find some consistency and find some grip. I've seen the sector times and I know where we're losing it compared to everyone else but I don't see how, within myself, we're just going to find a magical three-tenths (of a second). We've got to get to work. Tomorrow is a whole new day and we seem to excel as a team on race day. Who knows what can happen but we'll try to get this Steak 'n Shake car in victory lane."

 

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