Will Power continued his domination of the St. Petersburg’s street track with pole for Round 2 of the IZOD IndyCar Series.
After topping every practice session and winning the last round in Brazil, the Australian set a quick lap of 1:01.6026s in the Firestone Fast Six session, takin the top spot for the third time in his career.
Driving the #12 Verizon Team Penske entry, Power set the track qualifying record in the second round of qualifications at 1:01.4816s.
Tony Kanaan, who also participated in the Firestone Fast Six in Brazil, will join Power on the front row for the 100-lap race. He posted a lap of 1:01.8797s in the Team 7-Eleven car for Andretti Autosport.
New Zealander Scott Dixon (1:02.0820s) is third ahead of Justin Wilson (1:02.1992s), two-time St. Peter winner Helio Castroneves (1:02.2118s) and Marco Andretti (1:02.3461s).
Power said he would have been “disappointed” with anything but pole.
“It’s a good weekend so far for Verizon Team Penske,” he said.
“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 (tyres). I came away with pole. We would have been disappointed if we didn’t given our pace this weekend.”
Power’s Australian Penske team-mate had a disappointing session, qualifying 19th.
In Firestone Indy Lights qualifying, James Hinchcliffe earned his first career pole in the series with a top lap of 1:06.3497s, while former Australian F3 champ James Winslow made a great start, taking sixth.
