Scott McLaughlin thinks he had a car capable of pole position at the St Petersburg IndyCar event before he spun out of the Fast Six.
The 2022 St Petersburg pole-sitter was the only Team Penske driver to make it through to the final phase of Qualifying, when he hit the wall exiting Turn 10.
McLaughlin had done likewise a day earlier in Practice 1 but, unlike then, he was unable to catch the #3 Chevrolet when he arrived at the Turn 11/Turn 12 dogleg.
Instead, the New Zealander broke into a spin and while he escaped further damage before coming to rest at the edge of Turn 13, he stalled and triggered a red flag.
As such, McLaughlin was not allowed to continue, although it is likely that he had presumably damaged a toe link anyway.
“Overall, not a bad day for us in the Dex Imaging Chevy,” he said.
“We beat our team-mates in qualifying, which is your first job, and then we ended up P6 after our spin.
“I felt like we had a car for pole today, which was really disappointing that I made a mistake.
“I hit the wall at Turn 10 on my first out lap and bent it and spun, so unfortunately, it caused a red, took us out of qualifying, but we’ll be okay for tomorrow and we can definitely work from there.”
No back-to-back pole position for @smclaughlin93 on the streets of St. Pete after this incident in the #FirestoneFast6. #INDYCAR // #FirestoneGP pic.twitter.com/Fl307c7TkH
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 4, 2023
The McLaughlin incident caused the second red flag of the Fast Six but, with neither he nor Kyle Kirkwood officially registering a time for that segment, they reverted to their Round 2 efforts.
As such, Kirkwood gets fifth on the grid, with the #3 Penske entry alongside.
Will Power is set to start 10th in the #12 Penske Chevrolet after getting caught out by the windy conditions, while team-mate Josef Newgarden could only manage 14th on the grid having failed to advance from Round 1.
Tomorrow, the Warmup takes place at 09:00 ET/ 01:00 AEDT, followed by the 100-lap Race at 12:20 ET/04:20 AEDT.
Both sessions are live and ad-free on Stan Sport, with coverage of the race beginning at 04:00 AEDT.
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