Esteban Guerrieri claimed the pole position for his debut Firestone Indy Lights race with a quick lap of 1:07.6903 at St. Petersburg. Guerrieri, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car, jumped to the top on the final green flag lap of the 45-minute session. He leapfrogged Conor Daly, who rose to P1 (1:07.9338) in the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car with 13 minutes remaining and further improved his lap time (1:07.7009).
"We've had competitive cars all weekend. Our last lap was our best lap so we ended up where we needed," said Guerrieri. "I like the track a lot and it will be fun to race with the field and my teammates tomorrow. I want to thank Sam for this opportunity and start the season well tomorrow from the front."
Josef Newgarden completed a 1-2-3 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports with a best lap of 1:07.8731. He'll be joined on the second row by Stefan Wilson (1:07.9582) in the No. 5 Andretti Autosport car. It's the fourth 1-2-3 start in Indy Lights for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
1. (7) Esteban Guerrieri, 01:07.6903 (95.730)
2. (77) Conor Daly, 01:07.7009 (95.715)
3. (11) Josef Newgarden, 01:07.8731 (95.472)
4. (5) Stefan Wilson, 01:07.9582 (95.353)
5. (36) Peter Dempsey, 01:08.1869 (95.033)
6. (2) Gustavo Yacaman, 01:08.2898 (94.890)
7. (22) Victor Garcia, 01:08.3119 (94.859)
8. (9) Anders Krohn, 01:08.3888 (94.752)
9. (17) Joel Miller, 01:08.4276 (94.699)
10. (26) James Winslow, 01:08.4522 (94.665)
11. (16) David Ostella, 01:08.5781 (94.491)
12. (3) Victor Carbone, 01:08.6399 (94.406)
13. (12) Juan Pablo Garcia, 01:08.7650 (94.234)
14. (28) Duarte Ferreira, 01:09.6193 (93.078)
15. (4) Jorge Goncalvez, 01:09.7635 (92.885)
16. (63) Mikael Grenier, no time (no speed)