Castroneves victorious in St-Petersburg

Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) seemed to be the best contender for victory on the Saint-Petersburg road circuit which opened the new season.IndyCar, but the New Zealander finally lost to Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) who took the lead of the race in the last relay. The Brazilian was undoubtedly the fastest and was no longer threatened until the finish. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) managed to protect his third place from the threat posed by his teammate James Hinchcliffe, who replaces Danica Patrick this year. Nascar.

Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) took the lead at the end of the race on simon pagenaud (Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports), sixth in the race. The Frenchman still achieved a very good performance by finishing second driver powered by Honda (after Scott Dixon) after starting from 16th place following his penalty. He finished above all in front of pole sitter Will Power (Team Penske) who was strangely behind from the start of the race. His historic rival Dario Franchitti (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) is not better off since the reigning champion only takes 13th place. EJ Viso (KV Racing Technology), Charlie Kimball (Novo Nordisk Ganassi Racing) and Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing) complete the top ten. Unsurprisingly, the Lotus-powered teams are behind, Alex Tagliani (Team Barracuda) being first in 15th place. Sebastian Bourdais (Dragon Racing) was able to achieve a top ten finish, but the Frenchman retired due to a mechanical problem at the end of the race.

Discover the report of the Saint-Petersburg event, the inaugural round of the IndyCar season, produced by our special correspondent in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version and from Wednesday on newsstands.