Will Power scored a sixth career pole position at the St Petersburg street course as Team Penske kicked off its 2016 IndyCar Series campaign in dominant fashion.
Recovering from a crash in opening practice on Friday, Power had rebounded to top that afternoon’s session and the final pre-qualifying hit-out on Saturday morning.
The in-form Australian went on to blitz all three segments of qualifying, ending the final Fast Six running 0.197s clear of second placed Simon Pagenaud.
An early effort had seen Helio Castroneves set the initial Fast Six benchmark before eventually falling to third ahead of last year’s winner Juan Pablo Montoya.
Reigning champion Scott Dixon proved best of the rest with fifth in his Ganassi entry, 0.29s adrift of Power’s 1:00.25s benchmark.
Ryan Hunter-Reay completed the top six, but could get no closer than 0.6s of Power in the final session.
Graham Rahal, Sebastien Bourdais, the returning James Hinchcliffe and Jack Hawksworth completed the top 10 thanks to their efforts in Segment 2.
VIDEO: Qualifying Highlights
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