FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
QUALIFYING REPORT
The streets of St. Petersburg saw the Verizon IndyCar Series take to the track today for the first qualifying session of the season. In just two days of on track activity, the 2016 championship has already proven to be close competition. American racing veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay topped the charts for the Andretti team and represented Honda in the Firestone Fast Six.

The 110-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg goes green Sunday with live broadcast starting on ABC at 12:30pm ET.

Ryan Hunter-Reay
No. 28 DHL Honda

• Positioned the DHL car into the Firestone Fast Six, the only Honda to progress to the top qualifying group
• Posted his fastest qualifying lap at 01:00.8803

“We have to go back and talk about the race car, we were just focused on qualifying. It’s a new (aero) kit, it’s a work in progress. I have to talk myself into being happy about qualifying the DHL Honda sixth today, that’s hard to do, but it’s better than we qualified last year here. I think this new aero kit and the Honda engine have put us closer, but we still need to do a lot of work here.”
Carlos Muñoz
No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda

• Will start tomorrow’s Firestone Grand Prix from the 13th position
• Had a fastest lap of 01:01.1856 in qualifying today

“We expected much more in qualifying, so we are disappointed. We will have to work it out for tomorrow to put the Andretti Autosport Honda on top, but we’re starting 13th, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Marco Andretti
No. 27 Snapple Honda

• Will take to the grid tomorrow in the 15th position
• Series veteran posted his fastest qualifying time at 01:01.2417

“Credit to Ryan (Hunter-Reay) to squeeze it out and get into the Firestone Fast Six. We just were lacking rear grip in qualifying. The (Firestone alternate) reds didn’t do what I expected they would do. We’ll meet tonight and pull together to work towards a strong set up for the Snapple car for tomorrow.”

Alexander Rossi
No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda

• The Verizon IndyCar Series Rookie will start the race tomorrow from the 19th position
• Only spending four days in the seat of an Indy car, Rossi recorded his fastest lap in qualifying at a time of 01:01.5794

“Based on yesterday afternoon, we were expecting quite a bit more today. We had a bit of an issue this morning on the Castrol Edge/Curb Honda with braking that we weren’t able to resolve this afternoon. That is a little disappointing but it’s the way it goes sometimes. I think that we, as a group of four cars, need to put our heads together tonight and figure out what the best solution is. We all know IndyCar racing is very different on Sunday than it is on Saturday, so we’ll have to make sure we dot all our i’s and cross all our t’s to put our best foot forward for tomorrow.”