Power continued his domination on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course alongside scenic Tampa Bay by claiming the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the sixth Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with a quick lap of 1 minute, 1.6026 seconds (105.190 mph) in the Firestone Fast Six session.
It is the third pole start in his IZOD IndyCar Series career. The previous times he won at Edmonton and was runner-up at Long Beach in 2009.
Power won the season opener on another temporary street course two weeks ago in Brazil, and had topped every practice session time chart this weekend. He set the track qualifying record in the second round of qualifications at 1:01.4816 (the record had been 1:01.6839 in 2007 by Helio Castroneves).
“It’s a good weekend so far for the Verizon Team Penske,” said Power, who started and finished sixth in his Penske Racing debut here last year – substituting for Castroneves. “We’re still at the front and so I’m very happy. It’s been a process. We’ve been working away at it and go through each session and look after our reds (alternate tire allotment). IndyCar
Tony Kanaan from Andretti Autosport finished 0.28 seconds behind Power to capture the outside pole.
“It’s only a perfect lap when you put it on the pole, but it was a perfect lap for the car that we had, so I didn’t have anymore,” Kanaan said.
Scott Dixon qualified third, followed by Justin Wilson and Castroneves.
Marco Andretti, Hunter-Reay, Alex Tagliani, E.J. Viso and Mike Conway completed the top-10.
Dario Franchitti failed to advance into the final “fast six” round of qualifying for the first time since 2006 at Watkins Glen, NY. Franchitti, the reigning series champion, kicked off the season by winning the pole at Brazil. He will start 13th at St. Petersburg. MiamiHerald.com
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