St. Pete IndyCar: Herta beats Harvey to pole position

Herta went a quarter-second faster than Harvey with his final run to claim pole for the 2021 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, with a 60.3210sec effort on his fourth lap.

Harvey however can be satisfied to have laid down a 60.5 on his second lap, beating Team Penske duo Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud.

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Given several teams’ struggles to lay down a fast lap on the Firestone alternate tires through Q1 and Q2, Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet driver Pato O’Ward went out on fresh primary tires and stayed on them, but the tactic didn’t pay off and he wound up sixth, 0.75sec from top spot. He will start alongside two-time St. Pete winner Sebastien Bourdais, who as in the opening race at Barber Motorsports Park, has again done justice to his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.

Q2

Newgarden was fastest on primary tires again with 60.6557sec lap, and he was only slightly shaded by Rinus VeeKay and Alexander Rossi on alternate tires. Finally, Newgarden laid down a strong lap on reds to claim a 60.3827, only to see Herta clip 0.0059sec off that time to claim top spot – and then improve further with a 60.2207.

Late improvements from Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing and Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank Racing) saw Ganassi aces Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, the Barber winner, bumped out of the Firestone Fast Six, along with Alexander Rossi.

Dixon told Peacock: “Scraped through Round 1, just really struggled with corner entry. Caught me out for sure. Tires didn’t come in, and you end up missing just by a few hundredths. A lot of good guys struggling to get their laps in.”

However, he pointed out that the race “can be pretty crazy here, strategy-wise.”

Q1 Group 2

Team Penske’s remarkable rookie Scott McLaughlin was the fastest on Firestone primaries, beating teammates Josef Newgarden and Will Power and ducking under the 61sec barrier before everyone ducked in for Firestone alternates.

On reds, it was a very different story, as Newgarden went top and both McLaughlin and Power fell foul of the top six cut off. Power, who had been struggling with his handling in the morning practice too and had also had a brake change, grazed the wall and bent a toe link on what should have been his fastest run, consigning the nine-time St. Pete polesitter to the 10^th row of the grid.

Two drivers who had been angered by Dalton Kellett getting in their way, namely Graham Rahal and Rinus VeeKay, both got through to Q2 for RLL-Honda and ECR-Chevy respectively, sandwiching Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing.

James Hinchcliffe and Alex Palou also moved into Q2 but Romain Grosjean in the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda did not.

Q1 Group 1

Ed Jones and Jimmie Johnson hit the track on Firestone reds straight away but it didn’t seem to serve them well as the track was still dirty from the Stadium Super Trucks race.

Scott Dixon had a spin on his primary tires but kept it off the barriers and didn’t even need to use the escape road. However, he got a penalty and would have to lose his best lap, yet despite an alarming sideways moment under braking, he got through to Q2 with his second fastest time.

Alexander Rossi set fastest time with a 60.2949sec ahead of teammate Herta, but Ryan Hunter-Reay, who’d also served a penalty for going down an access road and causing a yellow, was only seventh with his second best time.

Also among the eliminated was the second Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy of Felix Rosenqvist.