INDY LIGHTS PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG QUALIFYING
03.09.18

The sunshine was out for Opening Day of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season. The four drivers that make up the Andretti Autosport team hit the pavement of the streets of St. Petersburg early this morning for a quick practice before turning laps to qualify this afternoon.

Qualifying for Race 2 will begin tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. ET before the drivers grid for the first time in 2018. Race 1 will go green at 1:05 p.m. ET. Follow along with live timing and scoring at racecontrol.indycar.com.

No. 27 CDMX MEXICO CITY MAZDA
  • STARTING POSITION: 2nd
  • QUALIFYING TIME: 1:05.2857
  • OF NOTE: Earned a front-row start for his full-time debut in the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires series
“I think [qualifying] went pretty good. Usually on a street course, every lap gets fast and faster, but the fine line between pushing the limit of what you and the car can do and hitting the wall is very small. It’s really hard to get that last tenth. Overall, I’m satisfied. I think we’re going to have a good race car for tomorrow, we just have to finalize the details to make the car last an hour for the race. I’m not disappointed. I’m pretty happy with the performance. The field isn’t very big, but I feel the driver quality is stacked and very competitive. I think it’s going to be a really good race tomorrow.”

No. 98 ANDRETTI-STEINBRENNER RACAING/CURB MAZDA
  • STARTING POSITION: 3rd
  • QUALIFYING TIME: 1:05.3525
“I’m happy with P3, I think it’s a good spot to start for the race. I think we had a good car, we didn’t really max it out though. There are a few things we can work on, we’ll look back at everything tonight and then go and get them tomorrowmorning. I think some of the cooler weather will help, so naturally the car may be better for us in the morning.”

No. 48 JOURNEY MAZDA
  • STARTING POSITION: 6th
  • QUALIFYING TIME: 1:05.8856
“Qualifying went alright – we ran into an issue on the first tire run with my HANS device, so that took away some of my energy and concentration. We came in and fixed that and went to a new tire run. The car felt pretty good. There are still some things I’d like to tweak, but overall, I feel a lot better than last year. If we keep moving in this same direction and keep improving, we’ll be in a good position toward the end of the weekend. We’ll move forward the best we can and hopefully grab a podium.”

No. 28 K-LINE INSULATORS USA MAZDA
  • STARTING POSITION: 9th
  • QUALIFYING TIME: 1:06.7570
“Bit of a tough day for us here at St. Pete. The first session we had a few electrical PC issues and that was out of our hands, and that session spiraled down from that. That forty-five minute session is pretty crucial when you only have one session before qualifying. At least we got somewhat back in the ballpark for qualifying session, but obviously we’re pretty disappointed with where we’re starting tomorrow. We really need to dig into the data and see what we can do differently to get the most out of tomorrow’s qualifying session. I think we know the car can be quick. We’ve been quick here last year. Not lacking from confidence just need to figure out what we need to tweak to be a little quicker.”