FP – Australia’s Will Power faces an unfamiliar second row grid position for the IndyCar season-opening Grand Prix of St Petersburg.

Three-time series runner-up Power started from pole position in the street circuit race for the past four years but had to settle for fourth fastest time in qualifying on Saturday.

Japan’s Takuma Sato claimed the first pole position of season on a day when thunderstorms and changing track conditions made things tricky.

His quick lap put him in front of Brazil’s Tony Kanaan, American Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2010 race winner Power, reigning IndyCar series champion Scott Dixon of New Zealand and American Marco Andretti in the “Fast Six” final phase of qualifying.

The forecast for Sunday’s 110-lap race, the first of 18 races on the series’ 2014 slate, is favourable.

“I’m just happy to start on the pole,” a beaming Sato said after notching his fourth career IndyCar pole.

His victory at last year’s race in Long Beach, California made the former Formula One driver the first Japanese pilot to win an IndyCar race.

Kanaan had a strong start in his first qualifying effort with Ganassi Racing, posting a fastest lap .2951sec behind Sato’s.

Juan Pablo Montoya’s debut with Team Penske, in his return to open-wheel racing from a stint in NASCAR stock car racing, didn’t go as well. The Colombian will start 18th.