St Pete Indy Lights: Carlin's Jones, Chilton make front row debut
Ed Jones will make his Indy Lights debut from pole position after leading Formula 1 convert Max Chilton in an all-Carlin front row in qualifying in St Petersburg on Saturday
In what is also the debut Lights event for the British team, Jones held off stablemate Chilton to secure the top spot.
"The team has done a massive job to be up the front with both cars," Jones said.
"Me and Max were fighting right throughout the whole of qualifying, so it was quite exciting.
"I'm sure it's going to be the same for the race."
Indeed, there wasn't much to separate the pair, with Jones' pole time of 1m05.3193s besting Chilton's fastest lap by just 0.08 seconds.
Schmidt's Jack Harvey was third-fastest with a time that was 0.5s down on the Carlin cars, but just fast enough to keep him ahead of Scott Hargrove, whose 8Star team is also making its Lights debut this weekend.
It was a relatively subdued start to the season for both of the series' recent powerhouse teams.
Harvey was the only one of Schmidt's four drivers to qualify on the first four rows, while Andretti's fastest representative was Matthew Brabham in eighth.
A total of 13 cars will take the start for the race, which will be the first competitive outing for the new IL-15 chassis and Mazda/AER turbocharged engine.
QUALIFYING:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ed Jones | Carlin | 1m05.3193s | - |
| 2 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1m05.4052s | 0.0859s |
| 3 | Jack Harvey | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1m05.8622s | 0.5429s |
| 4 | Scott Hargrove | 8Star Motorsports | 1m05.9220s | 0.6027s |
| 5 | Spencer Pigot | Juncos Racing | 1m06.1279s | 0.8086s |
| 6 | Kyle Kaiser | Juncos Racing | 1m06.3410s | 1.0217s |
| 7 | Felix Serralles | Belardi Auto Racing | 1m06.3635s | 1.0442s |
| 8 | Matthew Brabham | Andretti Autosport | 1m06.6778s | 1.3585s |
| 9 | R.C. Enerson | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1m06.7201s | 1.4008s |
| 10 | Scott Anderson | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1m07.0628s | 1.7435s |
| 11 | Juan Piedrahita | Belardi Auto Racing | 1m07.0780s | 1.7587s |
| 12 | Shelby Blackstock | Andretti Autosport | 1m07.5788s | 2.2595s |
| 13 | Ethan Ringel | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1m07.7582s | 2.4389s |
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