IndyCar: 2018 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg qualifying results
By Asher Fair
Qualifying for the opening race of the 2018 IndyCar season, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, is in the books. Who will start where?
The qualifying session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the race that is set to open up the 2018 IndyCar season tomorrow, is in the books, and included a little bit of everything from start to finish. There was rain throughout the session, and several drivers were penalized before the starting grid was finally determined.
In his first career IndyCar race, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Robert Wickens took the pole with a lap time of 61.6643 seconds (105.085 miles per hour) around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit in his #6 Honda.
Wickens posted his fastest lap of the session on the final lap of all drivers in the session. Going back to last year’s Pocono race, Wickens is the fourth driver in the last five races to take the pole position for a race on the final overall lap of qualifying.
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Takuma Sato pulled it off at Pocono last year before Josef Newgarden pulled it off at Gateway and Alexander Rossi pulled it off at Watkins Glen.
Not only is the rookie Wickens on pole, but three of the race’s top four qualifiers have a combined zero career IndyCar starts at this very moment. Behind the top Chevrolet qualifier, who was veteran Will Power in his #12 Team Penske Chevrolet, rookie Matheus Leist qualified in 3rd place in his #4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet and rookie Jordan King qualified in 4th in his #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.
Aside of Wickens, the race’s top Honda qualifier was Takuma Sato in 5th place in his #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.
Here are the full qualifying results for the 2018 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Engine |
| 1 | Robert Wickens | #6, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 2 | Will Power | #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 3 | Matheus Leist | #4, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 4 | Jordan King | #20, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 5 | Takuma Sato | #30, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 6 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | #28, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 7 | James Hinchcliffe | #5, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 8 | Gabby Chaves | #88, Harding Racing, Chevrolet |
| 9 | Scott Dixon | #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 10 | Tony Kanaan | #14, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 11 | Simon Pagenaud | #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 12 | Alexander Rossi | #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 13 | Josef Newgarden | #1, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | #18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 15 | Zach Veach | #26, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 16 | Spencer Pigot | #21, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 17 | Ed Jones | #10, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 18 | Marco Andretti | #98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda |
| 19 | Jack Harvey | #60, Michael Shank Racing, Honda |
| 20 | Max Chilton | #59, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 21 | Charlie Kimball | #23, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 22 | Zachary Claman DeMelo | #19, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 23 | Rene Binder | #32, Juncos Racing, Chevrolet |
| 24 | Graham Rahal | #15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
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The final practice session for the race is set to take place tomorrow morning at 8:45 am ET before the race takes place tomorrow at 12:30 pm ET. Be sure to tune in to ABC at that time to watch the live broadcast of the race from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.