It almost wasn’t to be for the #3 Team Penske Chevrolet, setting the fifth fastest time in the first round of qualifying to make the top six cut-off.

McLaughlin was quickest in the second round of qualifying and the Fast Six to secure top spot for Monday morning’s race.

The New Zealander put 0.0195s on Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson.

McLaughlin praised his new race engineer Raul Prados, who has stepped in to replace Ben Bretzman, who has been appointed Team Penske engineering manager of competition.

“Maybe I need to move to Florida. I don’t know what it is. I love this place. Great way to start our year,” said McLaughlin.

“We did this last year, and I proceeded to have the worst year of my life. I’m just focused on execution tomorrow and the rest of the season.

“This is one little step. Just really proud of the execution because I felt like we nearly actually missed Q1.

“We were right on the buffer there, and the car was terrible. It was nice to tune it up and get it right and then it become one of my favorite cars I’ve had around here.

“It’s a testament to Raul [Prados] and the camaraderie that we’ve built already and the understanding for each other, and that can only grow from here.”

The top six was completed by standout rookie Dennis Hauger for Dale Coyne Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing’s four-time champion Alex Palou, Team Penske newcomer David Malukas, and series returnee Romain Grosjean in the other Dale Coyne Racing car.

Marcus Armstrong narrowly missed out on the top six shootout. He will start from seventh in the leading Meyer Shank Racing entry.

Compatriot Scott Dixon was 16th for Ganassi. It was the first time since 2013 that he missed the second leg of qualifying at St Petersburg.

“I think it cooked the rear tyre,” Dixon explained.

“It’s the same thing I’ve been struggling with this morning.

“Yesterday the car was pretty good until I had my unfortunate incident there. Then the harder I tried to push to gain the time, especially on rear combined, it would just slide.

“I think we were through until I tried to go a little bit deeper in Turn 10, carried the speed, lost the rear then right before the line.

“It’s frustrating. It’s pretty tight, but the car, when you’re not at maximum attack is pretty good, so we’ll see how it rolls.”

Will Power was 13th in his first qualifying with Andretti Global. Power and Dixon were both high profile victims of the St Petersburg concrete barriers in practice.

The most surprising result was Josef Newgarden, who was only 23rd in the 25-car field with the slowest time in his group.

“Not ideal,” said Newgarden.

“We had a lot of traffic when we came out. I didn’t want to hold anybody up and honestly I think that’s what bit us.

“The sequencing was all off. I felt good on blacks (hard compound tyre). I’ve been struggling with brakes all weekend and I felt like we got on top of that finally.

“The car was really good, just unfortunate to not put something together there.”

Monday’s race gets underway at 4:30am AEDT with coverage live and exclusively on Stan Sport.

Results: IndyCar Series Grand Prix of St Petersburg, Qualifying