Verizon IndyCar Series rookie and former Marussia Formula 1 driver Max Chilton was disappointed with his qualifying result around the streets of St Petersburg on Saturday after the Chip Ganassi Racing driver could only manage seventeenth on the grid.
The British driver, who joined Chip Ganassi Racing after a year racing for Carlin in Indy Lights, admitted he had a difficult day around the street circuit, with the set-up of the car never being to his liking despite making changes to try and solve balance issues.
“It was a difficult morning for sure,” said Chilton, who will share the ninth row of the grid with series returnee Mikhail Aleshin of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. “We made a change during the first practice session that was just too much and ultimately didn’t really work.
“We went back to the way we had originally set up the car for qualifying, but it seemed to have the same balance issues we saw this morning.
“It’s not as high as we would’ve hoped to qualify, but I came out as the top rookie and I don’t think I did too bad of a job today. We’ll regroup tonight and be ready for the race tomorrow.”
