Will Power poleman in Saint Petersburg

Since the start of the weekend, Will Power has consistently ranked in the top 3 in free practice, notably dominating the second which took place on Friday afternoon. A few minutes ago, at the end of qualifying, the 2010 and 2011 runner-up recorded his 25th pole position since Long Beach on April 18, 2009, helped by the performance of a seemingly well-born Chevrolet engine. The Penske driver is ahead of a quartet of Detroit block holders, first and foremost his teammate and compatriot Ryan Briscoe, whom he is ahead of by a little less than 2/10th of a second. Followed by two Andretti Autosport drivers, Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe (the replacement for Danica Patrick on the Dallara in Go Daddy colors), while?Helio Castroneves completes the top 5. Last driver present in the Fast Six (the six drivers can still fight for pole), and sole Honda representative, simon pagenaud gave back 8/10th of a second to the poleman. Due to an engine change carried out last night, the member of the Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports will however be demoted by 10 places on the starting grid and will logically start from 16th place.

Another French driver on the track, Sébastien Bourdais did not meet with the expected success. Le Manceau was satisfied with the work accomplished on his Dallara-Lotus at the end of free practice this morning, but unfortunately he did not find his behavior in qualifying, his car seeming to lack grip. He was also stopped in his tracks in his last attempt and caused a red flag. Consequently, he had his two best times withdrawn and will therefore bring up the rear at the start of the event tomorrow. For his first qualification in IndyCar, Rubens Barrichello missed, by 2/100th of a second, to enter the second segment of qualifying. Consequently, he will start from 14th place, which is his best result since the start of the weekend. In front of the new KV Racing driver is his teammate EJ Viso, Mike conway (AJ Foyt / Honda), Graham Rahal (Ganassi / Honda), Dario Franchitti (Ganassi / Honda), Tony Kanaan (KV Racing / Chevrolet), Marco Andretti (Andretti / Chevrolet) and Scott Dixon (Ganassi / Honda).