IndyCar: Schwartzman impressed in debut qualifying

      On Saturday, the first IndyCar season qualifying took place at the St. Petersburg City circuit in Florida, and Scott McLaughlin, a Penske driver, won pole at the very end of the final session. Colton Herta, who plays for Andretti Global, lost less than two tenths to him, and then Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong, Christian Lundgard, Scott Dixon and Marcus Erickson will take positions on the starting field of tomorrow's race.

      Alex Palow, the reigning IndyCar champion, clocked the 8th time.

      But first of all, it should be noted that this was the very first qualifying of Prema Racing, a new team that will make its debut in this series in 2025, supported by Robert Schwartzman and Callum Aylott.

      I would like to quote almost verbatim from the American edition of Racer, which writes in its qualifying report: "If there was one among the 27 participants in the race who somehow cunningly made an impression, it was Prema Racing racer Robert Schwartzman, who failed to complete many laps on Friday, then he lost most of his Saturday morning practice. Due to problems with radio communication, he had to be among the last to qualify.

      But he shot up to 18th position, wedging himself between A. J. Foyt Enterprises drivers David Malukas and Santino Ferrucci..."

      At the same time, Ailott, his team-mate, a rider already quite experienced, was only the 27th, i.e. really the last.

      Robert commented on his IndyCar qualifying debut: "I don't think it was a bad qualifying overall, given all the difficulties we faced in training. We did very few laps, so we managed to achieve the best possible result.

      Besides, it was my very first experience of qualifying in this series. The tires here are also new to me, they are different from the rubber I am used to, so there is also a lot to learn and work on in this regard.…

      Tomorrow's race, the first of the season, promises to be interesting, so let's see how we can perform at the start from this position."