IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg qualifying results: Will Power wins pole

Team Penske’s Will Power will start on the pole for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a year after missing the IndyCar race due to illness.

It was deja vu for Will Power in qualifying for IndyCar’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Saturday, but the second time around would have a much happier ending.

The Team Penske driver earned the pole position for the season opener for the third year in a row, and seventh time in the past eight St. Petersburg events.

However, last year he wound up forfeiting the front spot as Power became ill on race day and could not compete. He was replaced at the last minute by Oriol Servia and the missed race ended up costing Power in the championship battle with teammate Simon Pagenaud.

A year later, though, Power looked excellent as he captured the 45th Verizon P1 Award of his IndyCar career—fifth most all-time—with a top speed of 106.118 MPH.

Just behind Power was four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, making his first qualifying attempt since Chip Ganassi Racing returned to Honda power. Dixon had dominated the practice sessions and maintained impressive speed on Saturday at 105.844 MPH.

All four Ganassi entries qualified in the Top 10 for Sunday’s race. Only two Penske cars, those driven by Power and new addition Josef Newgarden, reached the Top 10. Defending champion Pagenaud will start 14th and Helio Castroneves rolls off 16th.

James Hinchcliffe and Takuma Sato rounded out the Top 5, while Sebastien Bourdais will start from the rear after an accident in the opening round caused him to draw the red flag. Bourdais had his best two lap times disallowed and was not allowed to continue in qualifying.

Below are the complete qualifying results for the 2017 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg:

1 – Will Power
2 – Scott Dixon
3 – James Hinchcliffe
4 – Josef Newgarden
5 – Takuma Sato
6 – Tony Kanaan
7 – Max Chilton
8 – Alexander Rossi
9 – Charlie Kimball
10 – Graham Rahal
11 – Carlos Munoz
12 – Ryan Hunter-Reay
13 – Spencer Pigot
14 – Simon Pagenaud
15 – Marco Andretti
16 – Helio Castroneves
17 – Mikhail Aleshin
18 – Ed Jones
19 – JR Hildebrand
20 – Conor Daly
21 – Sebastien Bourdais

Next: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entering Global Rallycross

The 2017 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg kicks off the Verizon IndyCar Series season on Sunday, March 12 at 12 p.m. ET. The race will be nationally televised on ABC. For race weekend updates, follow the Motor Sports category at FanSided here.