Newgarden wins the St Petersburg GP

Under Florida weather, the start of the St Petersburg Grand Prix, opening round of theIndyCar Series, goes off without a hitch. Third on the grid, Felix Rosenqvist (Chip Ganassi Racing / Honda) steals second place from Josef Newgarden (Team Penske / Chevrolet). Behind, Alexander Red (Andretti Autosport / Honda) does the same on his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay and moves to fifth place. simon pagenaud (Team Penske / Chevrolet) is 11th at the end of the first lap and Sébastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing / Honda) is 20th. But the best start goes to Marco Andretti, last to start but already 14th on the second pass!

Alas, on the 13th lap, Sébastien Bourdais fell victim to his engine and was forced to pull over to the side. The Sarthois sees his hopes of signing the three pass at “home” disappear at the same time. On the 19th lap, another local resident saw his Honda twin-turbo V6 give up the ghost, namely Ryan Hunter-Reay, aka “Captain America”, who had been so fast since the start of the meeting.

On the 25th lap, Matheus Leist (AJ Foyt / Chevrolet) and Ed Jones (Ed Carpenter / Chevrolet) stopped there, the first named being unable to avoid the second, who made contact with the wall. On the restart, Felix Rosenqvist took the advantage over Power. But on the 51st lap, the Swede lost by a fraction after a stop a bit longer than that of his Australian rival, who regained the reins of the race. But he lost them a handful of loops later to his teammate who, on red tires unlike his pursuers, escaped to build a lead of more than a handful of seconds. On the 59th lap, Power even lost to Scott Dixon, who had previously taken the advantage over his teammate Rosenqvist. At that point in the race, Simon Pagenaud was seventh behind Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports / Honda).

The following salvo of supplies did not change the established order, Power barely managing to stay in front of Rosenqvist, not hesitating to brush against the wall, to the point of tearing off the advertising panel covering it. But a few laps from the goal, Dixon comes back on Newgarden...but the latter quickly makes him understand that he too is able to increase the pace. There will be no more changes at the front. Starting second, Newgarden won thanks to a strategy that was judicious to say the least. The Team Penske driver finished ahead of outgoing champion Scott Dixon and pole sitter Will Power. The 2017 champion won his first victory on the streets of St Petersburg, the ninth in 16 editions for his employer, the last – signed Juan Pablo Montoya – dating back to 2016.

In fourth place, we find a very convincing Felix Rosenqvist, who did not miss his debut in the discipline. The Swede precedes Alexander Rossi, James Hinchcliffe and Simon Pagenaud. Another convincing rookie: Colton Herta (Harding Racing), eighth ahead of Santino Ferrucci (Dale Coyne Racing) and Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank).

The next round is scheduled in two weeks (March 24). This will be the first event in the history of the series to take place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin (Texas).