Will Power has won the first Verizon P1 Award of the season during Saint Petersburg (Florida) qualifying of IndyCar Series. The Penske driver will start up front of Scott Dixon and James Hinchcliffe in tomorrow’s season opening race.
As always in the street and road course circuits, the qualifying was divided in two groups where the 6 fastest of each group advance to the top 12 round. Then the 6 faster of this group fight for the pole position (Verizon P1 Award) in the final round called “Firestone Fast 6”.
2016 pole position winner, Will Power (Team Penske) set the fastest time in group 1, passing to the next round alongside Charlie Kimball (Chip Ganassi Racing), James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports), Max Chilton (Chip Ganassi Racing), Carlos Muñoz (A.J. Foyt Enterprises) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport).
Ed Carpenter Racing drivers didn’t pass to the next round, the same for Mikhail Aleshin (Schmidt Peterson Motorsport) who made contact with the wall and the fastest in practice 1, Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport).
In the second group the red flag appeared because of a contact with the tyres barrier of Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing).
This wasn’t the unique surprise of the session, the IndyCar Champion, Simon Pagenaud alongside his team mate in Penske, Helio Castroneves didn’t advance to the next round. The Dale Coyne cars and Conor Daly (A.J. Foyt Enterprises) didn’t advance as well.
So from 2016 Chevrolet dominance in Top12, this year was the opposite with 9 Honda’s in the session and only 3 “Chevy’s”.
In this session we also saw Hunter-Reay making contact with the wall damaging the rear suspension. Problems as well for Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Racing) who went off at turn 7 but despite that, the Brazilian managed to join the Firestone Fast 6. His team mate, Scott Dixon, with Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), Takuma Sato (Andretti Autosport), Power, and Hinchliffe also were classified for the fast 6.
In the Fast 6 the drivers went off really late, and nobody was able to beat Will Power who once again took the pole position in the streets of Saint Petersburg, ahead of Dixon and Hinchcliffe.
Results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Lap Time | Laps |
| 1 | Will Power | Team Penske | 1:01.064 | 13 |
| 2 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:01.221 | 14 |
| 3 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1:01.303 | 14 |
| 4 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 1:01.722 | 13 |
| 5 | Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | 1:01.985 | 12 |
| 6 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:02.082 | 14 |
| 7 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:01.351 | 13 |
| 8 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta Autosport | 1:01.519 | 9 |
| 9 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:01.606 | 10 |
| 10 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:01.618 | 11 |
| 11 | Carlos Muñoz | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | 1:01.739 | 11 |
| 12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 1:03.158 | 7 |
| 13 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:01.589 | 6 |
| 14 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 1:01.612 | 6 |
| 15 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | 1:01.607 | 7 |
| 16 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | 1:01.715 | 6 |
| 17 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1:01.767 | 7 |
| 18 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | 1:01.759 | 6 |
| 19 | JR Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:01.846 | 7 |
| 20 | Conor Daly | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | 1:02.203 | 6 |
| 21 | Sébastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing | No time | 0 |