Sunday Morning Update from St Petersburg
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| Will today's start be clean? |
It’s Race Day in St. Pete. The weather predicted for today has changed many times. Temperatures should be about 75 degrees by race time. Rain will either fall during the IndyCar warmup or right before the start of the race instead of during the race. Right now, the sun is shinning.
The results of qualifying yesterday were pretty unpredictable. The weather played a small factor as the precipitation started during the end of session 2. Then it rained lightly during the Fast 12 round. The teams did not use their rain tires but had them close at hand if there would have been a downpour.
Multiple penalties were issued during qualifying. Graham Rahal, driving the number 15 car for Rahal, Letterman, Lanigan Racing, spun in turn 10 at the start of Group 2 and caused a red flag. That resulted in Rahal losing his two fastest laps and he could not advance to the next round.
Then Marco Andretti, driving the number 98 car for Andretti Herta Autosport, received a penalty for qualifying interference and lost his two fastest laps and could not advance to the next round. And Simon Pagenaud, driving the brightly colored number 22 for Team Penske, spun in turn 1. Pagenaud lost his two fastest laps and could not advance to the Firestone Fast 6.
Alexander Rossi, driving the number 27 for Andretti Autosport, should have advanced to the Fast 6 but was penalized after the session ended for qualifying interference. This resulted in Rossi also losing his two fastest laps and being done for the day. This allowed Ryan Hunter-Reay, Rossi’s teammate at Andretti Autosport, to advance to the Fast 6.
There were three IndyCar rookies in the Fast 6 session. Robert Wickens, driving the number 6 for Schmidt Peterson Racing, took his first pole in his first race for IndyCar. Matheus Leist, the youngest rookie in the series driving for AJ Foyt Racing, took the 3rd spot on today’s starting grid. And Jordan King, driving the Ed Carpenter Racing #20 entry, ended up in 4th position.
King, in fact, set the new lap record for the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 1:00.0476 (107.914 mph), eclipsing Power's old standard from 2016 by nearly two-hundredths of a second.
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| Andretti Autosport got th screw from IndyCar officials on Saturday |
Wickens is the 3rd rookie to earn a pole in their first IndyCar race. Sebastien Bourdias, last year’s winner of this race, won the pole here in St Pete in 2003 as a rookie. Nigel Mansell, driving for the former Newman-Haas Team, won the pole in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia in 1993 in his rookie start.
AR1 heard that the Andretti Autosport Team met with the IndyCar officials for an hour after the qualifying, questioning why Andretti and Rossi were assessed penalties. The two stewards in race control, Max Papis and Arie Luyendyk, are the ones that officiate the penalties. IndyCar’s new Race Director this season, Kyle Novak, addresses the penalties with the teams.
If you spin you also lose your two fastest laps, like the spin itself isn't enough of a penalty. Why are these penalties your two fastest laps and not just your fastest lap? If you are not pushing the limit as a race car driver, you are likely a wanker who will never win anything. When you push the limit, especially on a damp track with slick tires, yes you might just spin. Show me a driver who never spins and I will show you a wanker.
I am not making any guesses for who might win this race. We will update you if any changes happen to the starting grid after the morning warmup which starts at 8:45 am.
Lucille Dust reporting live from St Petersburg. Mark C. contributed to this report