IndyCar: McLaughlin wins pole for St. Petersburg GP

Scott McLaughlin has won pole position for the Firestone GP of St. Petersburg, the opening race for the 2022 IndyCar season.

McLaughlin’s lap of 59.7579s in Round 3 (Fast-Six) beat his Penske Chevy teammate Will Power, the man who has won more poles at this track than anyone else, by 0.12s.

Colton Herta was third in the #26 Andretti Autosport Honda ahead of the #21 Ed Carpenter Chevy of Rinus Veekay, the #28 Andretti Honda of Romain Grosjean to round out the top-5.

Street courses were McLaughlin’s Achilles heel in his rookie season, but now with one year under his belt, and the Chevy engines having better driveability this year, it was enough to propel the Kiwi to the top. In morning practice he was the only driver to dip below the 1-minute mark, foretelling of things to come in qualifying.

“The DEX Imaging Chevy feels really great,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve worked really hard with my engineer, Ben Bretzman, to fine-tune what I want from this car, and I’m very proud of this team.”

The moment @smclaughlin93 won his first NTT P1 Award.#INDYCAR // #FirestoneGP pic.twitter.com/joXLZkT5zE

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) February 26, 2022

“I love qualifying. You have to put it all on the line. I’m working really well with Ben Bretzman (new race engineer). The DEX Imaging Chevy is phenomenal. Ben is a legend. We said we could do it. I’m really proud. I know Mom and Dad will be watching at home, so this is awesome. I have my in-laws here and I haven’t seen them in two years. I’m super proud for that. Chevy has done a tremendous job giving us driveability. The engine is handling so much better and I’m so confident. I’m so happy… I have a race tomorrow and can’t use too much energy!”

“I’m a competitive bloke so I hate starting at the back! At the end of the day, it’s a new thing for me. I’ll be starting from the front and leading a group to the first corner. I’m used to braking with people in front of me so I have to make sure I don’t overshoot it like an idiot! We’ll have fun. I appreciate all the fans coming out. It’s great to see so many fans and I can’t wait for tomorrow. The show is going to be big.”

“I was very happy up until the last run,” said Power. “I was like P1, P1, P1, P2. But it was good. Like honestly, I feel like I got the most out of the session. I guess there’s not much I could have done. What I could have done in the last one was to fuel for just one lap and may have had a shot. But yeah, like I said, starting way ahead of last year at this track.”

Grosjean rebounded from an accident during practice Saturday morning to qualify fifth at 59.8116 in the No. 28 DHL Honda. Simon Pagenaud rounded out the Firestone Fast Six at 1 minute, .2041 of a second in the No. 60 AutoNation/Sirius XM Honda.

“Qualifying was okay. We still have a bit more speed we can get out of the car to get it to my liking, but the car was really good, very smooth to drive,” said Grosjean. “I know Andretti has got a brilliant car on all the street courses. With Olivier [Boisson, his engineer] last year, we had a really good car on road courses. Ovals, I know Andretti has got a good car, as well. I think with all of us working together, we can get something good. I’m happy that I’ve got really fast teammates. That’s going to push me to get better.”

In the second qualifying session, Power turned a top lap of 59.3466 to set a new track record. The previous mark was 1:00.0476 by Jordan King in 2018.

Qualification Results

Round 1 Group 1

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team
1	26	Colton Herta	59.4662	0.000s	0.000s	108.969	Honda	Andretti Autosport
2	15	Graham Rahal	59.7760	0.3098	0.3098	108.405	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	21	Rinus VeeKay	59.8046	0.3384	0.0286	108.353	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
4	9	Scott Dixon	59.8106	0.3444	0.0060	108.342	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	14	Kyle Kirkwood	59.8534	0.3872	0.0428	108.265	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
6	2	Josef Newgarden	59.9148	0.4486	0.0614	108.154	Chevy	Team Penske
Elimination Line
7	27	Alexander Rossi	59.9931	0.5269	0.0783	108.012	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	30	Christian Lundgaard	1:00.0276	0.5614	0.0345	107.950	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9	06	Helio Castroneves	1:00.1426	0.6764	0.1150	107.744	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
10	77	Callum Ilott	1:00.2121	0.7459	0.0695	107.620	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
11	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:00.3918	0.9256	0.1797	107.299	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
12	45	Jack Harvey	1:00.5333	1.0671	0.1415	107.049	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13	11	Tatiana Calderon	1:00.9391	1.4729	0.4058	106.336	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Round 1 Group 2

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team
1	12	Will Power	59.3929	0.000s	0.000s	109.104	Chevy	Team Penske
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.5846	0.1917	0.1917	108.753	Chevy	Team Penske
3	28	Romain Grosjean	59.6267	0.2338	0.0421	108.676	Honda	Andretti Autosport
4	60	Simon Pagenaud	59.7039	0.3110	0.0772	108.536	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
5	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.8815	0.4886	0.1776	108.214	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	10	Alex Palou	59.8956	0.5027	0.0141	108.188	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
Elimination Line
7	4	Dalton Kellett	59.9521	0.5592	0.0565	108.086	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
8	5	Pato O’Ward	1:00.0021	0.6092	0.0500	107.996	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
9	18	David Malukas	1:00.0259	0.6330	0.0238	107.953	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
10	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:00.0850	0.6921	0.0591	107.847	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
11	20	Conor Daly	1:00.1921	0.7992	0.1071	107.655	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	51	Takuma Sato	1:00.2930	0.9001	0.1009	107.475	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
13	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:01.0273	1.6344	0.7343	106.182	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing

Round 2 Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team
1	12	Will Power	59.3466	0.000s	0.000s	109.189	Chevy	Team Penske
2	26	Colton Herta	59.4051	0.0585	0.0585	109.082	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.5157	0.1691	0.1106	108.879	Chevy	Team Penske
4	28	Romain Grosjean	59.5559	0.2093	0.0402	108.805	Honda	Andretti Autosport
5	60	Simon Pagenaud	59.5881	0.2415	0.0322	108.747	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
6	21	Rinus VeeKay	59.6232	0.2766	0.0351	108.683	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
Elimination Line
7	9	Scott Dixon	59.7579	0.4113	0.1347	108.438	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.8241	0.4775	0.0662	108.318	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	2	Josef Newgarden	59.8862	0.5396	0.0621	108.205	Chevy	Team Penske
10	10	Alex Palou	59.9584	0.6118	0.0722	108.075	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	15	Graham Rahal	59.9870	0.6404	0.0286	108.023	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	14	Kyle Kirkwood	1:00.2616	0.9150	0.2746	107.531	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Round 3 Fast Six Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team
1	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.4821	0.000s	0.000s	108.940	Chevy	Team Penske
2	12	Will Power	59.6058	0.1237	0.1237	108.714	Chevy	Team Penske
3	26	Colton Herta	59.7104	0.2283	0.1046	108.524	Honda	Andretti Autosport
4	21	Rinus VeeKay	59.8102	0.3281	0.0998	108.343	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
5	28	Romain Grosjean	59.8116	0.3295	0.0014	108.340	Honda	Andretti Autosport
6	60	Simon Pagenaud	1:00.2041	0.7220	0.3925	107.634	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing

 

Race Lineup

Pos	No.	Driver	Engine	Time	Speed	Session
1	3	McLaughlin, Scott	Chevy	59.4821s	108.940	Round 3 / Firestone Fast Six
2	12	Power, Will	Chevy	59.6058s	108.714	Round 3 / Firestone Fast Six
3	26	Herta, Colton	Honda	59.7104s	108.524	Round 3 / Firestone Fast Six
4	21	VeeKay, Rinus	Chevy	59.8102s	108.343	Round 3 / Firestone Fast Six
5	28	Grosjean, Romain	Honda	59.8116s	108.340	Round 3 / Firestone Fast Six
6	60	Pagenaud, Simon	Honda	1m0.2041s	107.634	Round 3 / Firestone Fast Six
7	9	Dixon, Scott	Honda	59.7579s	108.438	Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
8	8	Ericsson, Marcus	Honda	59.8241s	108.318	Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
9	2	Newgarden, Josef	Chevy	59.8862s	108.205	Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
10	10	Palou, Alex	Honda	59.9584s	108.075	Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
11	15	Rahal, Graham	Honda	59.9870s	108.023	Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
12	14	Kirkwood, Kyle (R)	Chevy	1m0.2616s	107.531	Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
13	27	Rossi, Alexander	Honda	59.9931s	108.012	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
14	4	Kellett, Dalton	Chevy	59.9521s	108.086	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
15	30	Lundgaard, Christian (R)	Honda	1m0.0276s	107.950	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
16	5	O’Ward, Pato	Chevy	1m0.0021s	107.996	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
17	06	Castroneves, Helio	Honda	1m0.1426s	107.744	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
18	29	DeFrancesco, Devlin (R)	Honda	1m0.0850s	107.847	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
19	77	Ilott, Callum (R)	Chevy	1m0.2121s	107.620	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
20	20	Daly, Conor	Chevy	1m0.1921s	107.655	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
21	7	Rosenqvist, Felix	Chevy	1m0.3918s	107.299	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
22	51	Sato, Takuma	Honda	1m0.2930s	107.475	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
23	45	Harvey, Jack	Honda	1m0.5333s	107.049	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
24	18	Malukas, David (R)	Honda	1m0.4601s	107.178	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
25	11	Calderon, Tatiana (R)	Chevy	1m0.9391s	106.336	Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
26	48	Johnson, Jimmie	Honda	1m1.0273s	106.182	Elimination Round 1 / Group 2

R=Rookie