Marcus Ericsson won a bizarre, incident-filled Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after passing Patricio O’Ward with two laps to go.
Ericsson hit the front when his McLaren rival’s engine seized momentarily exiting the final corner. The pair arrived in the top two places after Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin – the dominant drivers of the day – crashed into one another, capping a race full of crashes and controversies.
The opening lap of the race was marred by an eight car pile-up which saw Devlin DeFrancesco’s Andretti car launched into the air after being hit in the side by rookie Benjamin Pedersen. The incident began when Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist made contact into turn two, causing the field behind Rosenqvist to slow around the fast, blind turn three.
Santino Ferrucci turned Helio Castroneves around, then Graham Rahal got into the back of DeFrancesco and spun him. Sting Ray Robb lost control and left Simon Pagenaud nowhere to go but sandwiched into the barriers. Pedersen then arrived on the scene with excessive speed and ran into the side of DeFrancesco.
In total, seven cars suffered significant damage. Thankfully, DeFrancesco and all other drivers involved walked away without any significant injuries, though the race had to be stopped while the carnage was cleared away.
When the race finally resumed, Grosjean and Colton Herta streaked away from the field behind them. The Andretti pair started the race on the softer, alternate-compound tyres. Herta struggled towards the end of his stint and dropped to ninth before making his first pit stop on lap 27. Grosjean, with the benefit of clean air, led all the way until he made his first pit stop on lap 32.
Last year’s race winner Scott McLaughlin was one of the drivers that started the race on the primary compound tyre. He worked his way into the top five towards the end of his stint, and cycled to the lead after Grosjean’s first stop. He pitted on lap 35 and rejoined the track right ahead of Grosjean. Even on cold tyres, McLaughlin’s car took on a strong defensive posture to keep the race lead on the softer compound rubber
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On lap 36, Kyle Kirkwood made contact with Conor Daly at turn eight, spinning Daly around, bringing out the second full course caution. The ensuing restart on lap 42 lasted only four corners when another multiple-car crash unfolded.
It began when Rinus VeeKay slid off into the tyre barriers. Kirkwood and Jack Harvey made…
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