IndyCar Qualifying Results: Pato O'Ward suffers NIGHTMARE as Team Penske star takes pole

Pato O'Ward looking downbeat — Photo: © IMAGO

IndyCar

IndyCar Qualifying Results: Pato O'Ward suffers NIGHTMARE as Team Penske star takes pole

The full starting order for the IndyCar St Pete Grand Prix is in after qualifying on Saturday

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson

Saturday 1 March 2025 22:26 Updated: 20:46

The starting grid for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has been set, with Scott McLaughlin coming out on top in the fast six and Pato O'Ward suffering a nightmare start to the IndyCar season.

Team Penske star McLaughlin set an impressive lap time of 59.4624 seconds around the streets of St. Pete in the final qualifying round, edging the likes of Andretti Global's Colton Herta and Meyer Shank Racing's Felix Rosenqvist for the pole.

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Rosenqvist was one of two MSR cars to make it into the top four, with Marcus Armstrong set to start fourth on Sunday. McLaren's Christian Lundgaard and Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon rounded out the top six in qualifying and will start in P5 and P6, respectively.

Lundgaard's McLaren team-mate O'Ward, meanwhile, crashed out in the first round despite being one of the favorites for this year's championship. O'Ward was one of two former St Pete Grand Prix winners to do so, with Will Power also suffering the same fate.

With all of that said, let's take a look at the qualifying results in full and the lineup for Sunday's GP!

IndyCar St Pete qualifying results and starting lineup

After qualifying on Saturday afternoon, here is the starting lineup for Sunday's IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, with lap times from the final stage of qualifying —the fast six — included.

Position	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Fastest Six Lap Time
1st	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	Chevrolet	59.4624s
2nd	Colton Herta	Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	Honda	59.6393s
3rd	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	59.6989s
4th	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	59.8278s
5th	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	Chevrolet	59.8663s
6th	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	59.9216s
7th	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	Honda	N/A
8th	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	N/A
9th	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global	Honda	N/A
10th	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevrolet	N/A
11th	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	Chevrolet	N/A
12th	Rinus VeeKay	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	N/A
13th	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	N/A
14th	Devlin DeFrancesco	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	N/A
15th	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	N/A
16th	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	N/A
17th	David Malukas	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	N/A
18th	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	Chevrolet	N/A
19th	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	N/A
20th	Alexander Rossi	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	N/A
21st	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	N/A
22nd	Conor Daly	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevrolet	N/A
23rd	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	Chevrolet	N/A
24th	Christian Rasmussen	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	N/A
25th	Jacob Abel	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	N/A
26th	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevrolet	N/A
27th	Callum Ilott	Prema Racing	Chevrolet	N/A