Rookie Robert Wickens takes St. Petersburg pole for first career IndyCar race - MotorSportsTalk

Oh, Canada!

Rookie driver and Canadian native Robert Wickens overcame rain and slick track conditions during Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the season-opening event for the Verizon IndyCar Series season.

Entered into the first IndyCar race of his career and first qualifying effort, Wickens, grabbed the pole on the last lap of qualifying for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and will start from the front after an effort of 1:01.6643.

Rookie Robert Wickens will start Sunday’s IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the pole.

“I’m a little speechless,” Wickens said. “My goal going into today was to make top 10. It was tough … but we kept our cool, made changes for the wet and we got it. I’m super happy. I hope we can take this pole position tomorrow and get a good result.”

Added Wickens’ teammate, James Hinchcliffe, “I knew he could do it. This kid’s got talent. He proved the car’s quick. It’s the first pole of his first career in his first race. It’s just awesome. I’m real happy.”

Wickens is one of three rookies to make the Firestone Fast Six.

Will Power will start second (1:01.7346), followed by rookie Matheus Leist (1:01.7631), rookie Jordan King (1:01.7633), Takuma Sato (1:01.8821) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (1:02.0385).

“It was really unpredictable, especially the way the paint was so slippery in Turn 1,” Power said of the qualifying conditions.

Added Leist: “That’s awesome. It’s a dream come true for me. First IndyCar race, first IndyCar season. I’m so happy. The A.J. Foyt team did a great job and I’m really, really happy.”

Here’s the full final qualifying grid:

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Qualifying Notes:

* Rookie Jordan King broke Will Power’s old track record (1:00.0658) with a run of 1:00.0476 in Round 1.

* Drivers that advanced from Round 1 to Round 2 in Group 1 were:

Jordan King: 1:00.0476
Alexander Rossi: 1:00.0936
Robert Wickens: 1:00.0999
Tony Kanaan: 1:00.2828
Simon Pagenaud: 1:00.3242
Ryan Hunter-Reay: 1:00.4087

* Those that did not advance to Round 2 from Group 1 were: Josef Newgarden, Zach Veach, Ed Jones, Jack Harvey, Charlie Kimball, Rene Binder

* Drivers that advanced from Round 1 to Round 2 in Group 2 of qualifying were:

Will Power 1:00.5969
Mattheus Leist 1:00.6331
Scott Dixon 1:00.8435
James Hinchcliffe 1:00.8441
Gabby Chaves 1:00.8507
Takuma Sato 1:00.9580

* Those that did not advance to Round 2 from Group 2 were: Spencer Pigot, Marco Andretti, Sebastien Bourdais (who started 21st and last one year ago, but then rallied to win), Graham Rahal, Max Chilton and Zachary Claman De Melo.

* In the second round of qualifying, Wickens was quickest (1:00.5428), followed by Will Power (1:00.5911), Ryan Hunter Reay, Jordan King (1:00.7305), Matheus Leist (1:00.7679) and Takuma Sato (1:00.8470).

* Failing to make the Firestone Fast Six were: Alexander Rossi (due to penalty), James Hinchcliffe, Gabby Chaves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Simon Pagenaud.

* It was somewhat surprising that Team Penske had just one driver in the top 12 (Power), while Chip Ganassi Racing also only had one (Dixon).

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There were several incidents of note throughout all three rounds of qualifying:

* Rain began to fall slightly during Group 2’s qualifying session, but it quickly stopped. However, it appeared Graham Rahal’s loop around in Turn 10 may have been due to the sprinkles.

* Rain returned a few moments later with a slight mist as the Fast 12 second round of qualifying got underway.

* Spencer Pigot and Marco Andretti were involved in an incident that Race Control was reviewing.

* Takuma Sato looped his car around in Turn 2 with about 2:45 left in the Fast 12 round of qualifying.

* Just a few moments later, Scott Dixon had to get on the brakes hard in Turn 2, but managed to keep going. Ditto for Simon Pagenaud, who spun on three consecutive laps while fighting to get into the Fast Six, costing him a chance to advance. It also brought out a red flag to end the session slightly early.

* In the Firestone Fast Six battle to earn the pole, just after Will Power almost lost it on the front stretch, Ryan Hunter Reay slid coming into Turn 1, followed by Jordan King and Takuma Sato.

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Here’s some selected driver quotes about qualifying:

James Hinchcliffe: “It went away quick (said of the conditions once the drizzle began). Once the paint gets wet, it gets incredibly slippery and we saw so many cars going off there in Turn 1. Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug. I’m happy Robby made it in, which is good for the team.”

Scott Dixon: “I guess we probably thought it was going to get drier as that session went on. It’s extremely slippery. We just misread it there. We were fast, quickest this morning, have good speed in the car. … We came here to win. I think the car is fast enough. We just have to see how we race.”

Gabby Chaves: “I would say we’re pretty happy, looking at where we started in practice yesterday. We took it very calmly, looked at the data, made the right changes and improved the car so much. … We knew with a little bit of luck and the right changes that we could make the final group and we did.”

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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