Romain Grosjean has qualified on pole position at the St Petersburg IndyCar event while 2022 race winner Scott McLaughlin spun out of contention in the Fast Six.

On a relatively difficult day for Team Penske, McLaughlin was the highlight as he qualified sixth in the #3 Chevrolet, although it could have been better if he did not cause a second red flag in the final segment of qualifying.

Instead, it will be an Andretti Autosport front row lockout with Grosjean (#28 Honda) beating Colton Herta to pole position by a sizeable 0.4155s thanks to a late 0:59.5532s.

Pato O’Ward claimed third on the grid in the #5 McLaren Chevrolet, from Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson (#8 Honda), Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Honda), and McLaughlin.

Neither six-time champion Scott Dixon (#9 Ganassi Honda) nor Will Power (#12 Chevrolet) made the Fast Six and they will instead share Row 5, while the latter’s Penske team-mate and fellow two-time champion, Josef Newgarden (#2 Chevrolet), did not even advance from Round 1.

The final segment of qualifying on the St Petersburg street circuit, the Fast Six, went red flag just 20 seconds in when Kirkwood crashed at Turn 13.

In his first IndyCar Series start for Andretti Autosport, the 2021 Indy NXT champion locked the left-front as he was about to start his first flyer, understeering the #27 Honda off and into a bare concrete wall.

McLaughlin was first to set a flyer in the Fast Six, a 1:01.3947s, but came unstuck on his next lap

As he did in Practice 1, the New Zealander touched the wall at Turn 10 but this time he could not save it when he negotiated the Turn 11/Turn 12 kink, losing control before coming to rest just beyond Turn 13, stalling, and thus bringing about a red flag.

Herta was originally credited with fastest lap during the stoppage but it was a little too late and the order was corrected as the four remaining drivers rolled out again. 

With new alternates available for some, albeit not Ericsson, that was when matters were about to get really serious anyway.

Grosjean set a 1:00.1806s on the green-sidewall tyres, before O’Ward laid down a 1:00.1185s and then Herta punched out a 0:59.9687s.

The Californian then put his cue in the rack but Grosjean and O’Ward were still going, and the Frenchman was able to snatch pole position in emphatic fashion.

O’Ward improved his time but not his position with a 1:00.0163s after the chequered

flag, while Ericsson scored fourth on a 1:00.4435s set on ‘black’ primary tyres.

On Row 3, Kirkwood is credited with fifth and McLaughlin sixth given their lap times reverted to Round 2 efforts.

Earlier, in said second segment, Alexander Rossi (#7 McLaren Chevrolet) completed an install lap before clocking a 1:00.0040s after what was thought to be an early switch to new alternate tyres.