Alex Palou wins for the first time of the year in St. Petersburg

Palou and his teammate Scott Dixon had been rather discreet since the beginning of the weekend, and as is often the case in this situation, they finished the race with a one-two! Palou took the lead during the last pit stops, by overtaking his teammate. Third for a long time behind Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), Dixon climbed back onto the second step of the podium thanks to an overtaking on the last lap.

The race changed dramatically on the first lap of the event, with a collision involving Will Power (Team Penske), Nolan Siegel (Arrow McLaren) and Louis Foster (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing). The subsequent caution allowed a large portion of the field, including the top three on the day, to pit and abandon the soft tires they had started on. While the softs offered a real pace advantage, they also wore out very quickly. This allowed them to continue the race on hard tires, while the other drivers had to do a stint on the softs, with the safety car remaining at the end of the pitlane until the checkered flag.

Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) fared best with the side strategy, finishing fourth ahead of Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti). His teammate Marcus Ericsson finished sixth ahead of Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank Racing), who finished second with the strategy of using the soft tyres during the race for a very short stint. The big favourite after the first lap was Colton Herta (Andretti), the American driver having qualified on the front row and started on the soft tyres.

Alas, a right-rear problem on his second stop on lap 35 dropped him down the order, and he was forced to stop eleven laps later, having not received enough fuel to continue. He crossed the line in a disappointing 16th position given the pace he had displayed all weekend. Marcus Armstrong (Meyer Shank Racing) looked set for a top-five finish until a left-rear suspension problem forced him to retire.

For Arrow McLaren, after Pato O'Ward's poor qualifying and Siegel's accident at the start, things ended better than expected with eighth place for Christian Lundgaard ahead of Rinus VeeKay (Dale Coyne Racing) and Alexander Rossi (ECR). O'Ward, who had a very complicated start to the race with an early stop, managed to reach the finish line in eleventh place.

Next meeting on March 23 for theIndyCar, at the Thermal Club in California.

Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – Standings

ALSO READ > Our favorites from the 2025 IndyCar season