ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After ending both pre-qualifying practice sessions in fifth and eighth ahead of Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Pato O’Ward was a near-certain lock to get himself out of the first round of Saturday’s qualifying session.
Instead, the 25-year-old’s qualifying session was not far off of the worst-case scenario. He will start 23rd out of 27 cars for Sunday’s 100-lap race around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course in St. Petersburg, Fla. to kick off the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season.
The defending St. Petersburg race winner was only 12th fastest out of 13 competitors in the first group of Round No. 1 of qualifying with a fastest lap of 60.3671 seconds (107.343 mph). The Mexican racer was just over a half-second slower of Rinus VeeKay‘s sixth-place time of 59.8573 seconds (108.258 mph) that was enough to get to the second round of qualifying.
“I just couldn’t get the green tires switched on,” O’Ward told FOX Sports pit reporter Jamie Little. “We had two opportunities and yeah, I don’t have an explanation for you, really. It was just a really tough lap to get together. Obviously it’s not ideal for tomorrow, but we’ll have our work cut out for us and we’ll see if we can make our way and get some solid points tomorrow.”
O’Ward was referring to the green sidewall alternate tires that Firestone brings to every street circuit that are softer to provide additional grip but at the expense of tire life. The sidewalls of those tires are made from guayule, a rubber plant.
Scott McLaughlin won the pole for Sunday’s race ahead of fellow front row starter Colton Herta. The race will air live on FOX with the broadcast starting at noon ahead of a 12:29 p.m. ET green flag.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.