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Wilson frustrated to miss St Pete pole

Justin Wilson says he feels robbed to have missed out on pole position in today's qualifying session for the IndyCar season opener at St Petersburg

The Briton qualified second, just five hundredths of a second slower than his former Newman/Haas/Lanigan team-mate Graham Rahal, and believes he would have claimed Dale Coyne Racing's first pole position in 23 years of Champ Car and IndyCar racing had he not been delayed by traffic in the final fast six shootout.

"Obviously I'm very disappointed," said Wilson. "These guys have worked hard and they've done a great job. I felt we had a chance today, a really good chance to be on pole and it's disappointing that we're not.

"We ran the red [softer] tyres against their harder ones because we saved them from Q1, that was a gamble we took to be in good shape for pole. But someone backed off right in front of me, right at the end of the lap, so it ruined two of my best laps. I came in, refuelled and managed to go a tenth quicker on the same tyres, but it's pretty hard to do any more on the second run.

"I felt we deserved pole and that I got robbed today, but that's how it goes. I'm pleased for Graham though, he's a nice guy, they're good guys and they've had a great day. Hopefully we can have a great day tomorrow."

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