For the fourth time in as many years, Penske’s Will Power has started his IndyCar season by winning the pole for the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg.
In typical fashion, he went out in the final qualifying session and scorched the track with a time no other driver could even approach—this time with a lap of 01:01.2070 at 105.87 mph, .37 seconds quicker than his nearest competitor, and besting his 2012 qualifying time by .1651 seconds and .285 mph.
“Yeah, that was interesting,” Power told the post-race press conference. “I never knew you could make so many changes to a car through qualifying in between each round.
“It was kind of hard to find a balance all weekend, but it seemed very nice on used tires. Going into the final round was kind of straightforward; just go out there and give it everything I had.”
If Power’s results were completely predictable the makeup of the rest of the Firestone Fast Six was not.
Takuma Sato, driving for A.J. Foyt racing for the first time, was second quickest and quickest of the Honda-powered cars. Third was Simona di Silvestro, proving that her fast practice times were not a fluke. After two years driving for an underfunded team (and one of them saddled with the non-performing Lotus engine) the speedy Swiss miss finally has a fast car and a strong motor, and she demonstrated exactly what she can do with those tools.
An Andretti Autosports driver finished fourth, but not 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was so quick in practice. Instead, it was James Hinchcliffe, who came within five thousandths of a second of equaling di Silvestro’s time.
Helio Castroneves qualified fifth— this was no surprise, as the Penske driver has won the race three times; he certainly knows his way around the track.
The biggest surprise was that the grid’s only rookie, 2012 Indy Lights champ Tristan Vautier, filled out the Fast Six. The young Frenchman, driving in his first IndyCar qualifying session, beat a pair of four-time IndyCar champions plus seventeen other IndyCar veterans. Vautier’s time was only .85 slower than Power’s; obviously the rookie is an exceptional talent.
Outside of the top six but still a respectable ninth, Sebastian Saavedra is making the most of his first full-time IndyCar ride. Saavedra came up from Indy Lights, had a couple of rides with different teams, and returned to the lower series for more experience.
Normally this would be considered career suicide, and admission that he didn’t have what IndyCar demanded. Instead, it proved to be the perfect move; as the 22-year-old has come back strong; he too qualified faster that that pair of four-time champions, including his team mate Sebastien Bourdais, who qualified 21st.
The performance of Bourdais and some of IndyCar’s other heavy hitters is also surprising. Dario Franchitti managed to make the top ten—just—but his Ganassi team mate Scott Dixon couldn’t do better than 20th. Former winner Graham Rahal qualified fifteenth.
Andretti Autosports got three drivers in the top ten, Penske managed a pair. The rest of the ten quickest are from teams not often seen there: Dragon Racing, Schmidt-Peterson, and A.J. Foyt Racing. KV got a driver in the top three, but it wasn’t Tony Kanaan.
Sunday’s race has been lengthened to 110 laps from 100; this will make it almost impossible for teams to use a two-stop strategy. In a race that long, even on a narrow street circuit, with that many pit stops, starting from the pole isn’t as huge an advantage as it might seem. St. Pete has a few decent passing zones, and clever (and/or lucky) timing of pit stops could reverse the field.
Whoever finally ascends to the top step of the podium after Sunday’s race, this much is clear—IndyCar 2013 will not feature the same old faces running up front. IndyCar has a whole new crew of potential winners for 2013.
The IndyCar Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg starts at 12:40 p.m. on Sunday March 24. Tickets are available at the gate or through the IndyCar Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg website.
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