Josef Newgarden controlled proceedings from start to finish in the IndyCar season-opener at St Petersburg.
The Penske driver led 92 of the 100 laps and took the chequered flag over eight seconds ahead of Pato O’Ward. The McLaren driver prevented Penske sweeping the podium, crossing the line with Scott McLaughlin and Will Power on his tail.
Reigning champion Alex Palou climbed from 13th on the grid to finish sixth behind Colton Herta. Felix Rosenqvist, who shared the front row of the grid with Newgarden, slipped back to finish seventh in his first race for Meyer Shank.
Rosenqvists’s former team mate Alexander Rossi was the second McLaren home in eighth, followed by Scott Dixon for Ganassi and Rinus VeeKay for Carpenter.
Newgarden maintained his lead from pole position at the start and led a relatively static opening stint pursued by Rosenqvist, Herta, O’Ward and Marcus Ericsson. The latter, last year’s race-winner, was doomed to retire with a technical problem shortly after half-distance.
On lap 27 Marcus Armstrong, the leading Ganassi driver running in 10th place, snatched his front-left brake heading into turn 11 and hit the tyre barrier, suffering race-ending suspension damage.
The leaders piled into the pits under the first caution period of the race on lap 28. Meyer Shank performed a superb stop for Rosenqvist, which moved him into the effective lead behind Linus Lundqvist, the only driver not to pit at that point.
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Newgarden fell to third behind Herta. But once the racing resumed the Penske driver quickly regained the position, his alternate compound tyres offering greater grip against the primary-shod Andretti machine. O’Ward followed him by, and on lap 33 they both took Rosenqvist.
Once Lundqivst pitted under a second caution period triggered by Sting Ray Robb’s retirement, Newgarden was back in the lead. He maintained that position when the field pitted again during green flag running, and briefly had his lead up to four seconds before the race was neutralised again.
This interruption was caused by Romain Grosjean nudging Lundqvist into the turn 11 barrier. The former F1 driver, in his first race for Juncos Hollinger, had started fifth but slipped down the order early on. He was penalised for the collision and later retired with a technical problem.
After the final restart Newgarden pulled away from O’Ward while McLaughlin and Power worked their way past Herta and Rosenqvist to take up…
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