Grosjean in St. Petersburg – Qualifying

#51: Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda

St. Petersburg, Florida (April 24, 2021) – It was another day of learning for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR driver Romain Grosjean in his first NTT IndyCar Series street course qualifying on Saturday, with the driver of the #51 Nurtec ODT Honda placing 18th on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.

After placing ninth in the morning practice session, Grosjean took to the track in Group 2 of Round 1 of qualifying for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Despite registering a fastest lap of 1:00.8127, only 0.16 seconds from making it to the Fast 12, Grosjean found himself ninth in his group and 18th in a very competitive NTT IndyCar Series field.

“It’s my first time in an Indy car on a street course and it’s been a really good experience,” shared Grosjean. “We’ve been quickly up to speed but qualifying didn’t quite go our way. We tried different set ups and it didn’t work. I guess that’s part of the learning curve. We are ready for tomorrow for the race, and I think we can do well. I think starting from further back that it opens it up a bit more for strategy, so we’ll look at our options there. It’s been a really cool experience, obviously a bit disappointed with qualifying but Sunday is when it counts.”

Grosjean and his team will get a final 30-minute warm-up tomorrow at 9:05am ET to fine tune his car. The 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg going green at 12:42pm ET. The race will be broadcast live on NBC from Noon ET on Sunday.