Indycar St. Petersburg Qualifying: Romain Grosjean on pole position

Romain Grosjean will start the opening Indycar race of the season from Pole Position after going fastest in the fast six at St. Petersburg.

Kyle Kirkwood set the early pace in Group 1, ahead of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, before the former Formula E driver climbed to the top.

Then with 12 seconds remaining in the session, Simon Pagenaud went straight into the barrier and the red flag was flown.

Under Indycar rules, everyone apart from Pagenaud was allowed to take to the circuit again and set a lap time and it was Rosenqvist who ended the session fastest.

Joining him in the fast 12 were Christian Lundgaard, Kirkwood, O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Erricson.

The second group was headed early on by Devlin DeFrancesco, who was narrowly ahead of former Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean.

With a minute left in the session, it was the French driver of Grosjean who went fastest before Colton Herta went to the top of the timesheets and then Scott Dixon.

The drivers progressing to the fast 12 were Dixon, Herta, Grosjean, Alex Palou and Will Power.

After the opening runs of the fast six, it was Alexander Rossi that was leading the way ahead of Herta and O’Ward. Dixon, McLaughlin and Palou were all also in the top six as they looked to progress to the final part of the qualifying session.

Scott McLaughlin put in a very strong late lap to make it into the Fast six, knocking Alex Palou out.

Joining McLaughlin in the fast six, is Herta, Kirkwood, Grosjean, O’Ward and Ericcson.

In the fast six, Karl Kirkwood brought out the red flag with just moments into the start of the session after crashing into the wall.

Then when the session restarted, Scott McLaughlin also dirfted wide and the red flag was brought back out.

With only four drivers remaining, it was a close battle for pole with Herta being the first to move to the top, followed then by Grosjean going quickest.

It was the French driver who claimed pole position for the Grand Prix of St Petersburg ahead of Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward. The only other driver to set a lap time in the session was Marcus Ericsson, with both Scott McLaughlin and Kyle Kirkwood failing to complete a lap.

Kirkwood will start ahead of McLaughlin in the Grand Prix as the Q2 result was used to determine which position they start in.