Alex Palou wins season opener with largest St. Pete margin of victory in IndyCar history

Plenty of incidents shook up the running order, with Palou emerging victorious in IndyCar's opening race in Florida

Reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou is off to another strong title defense after winning the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The Spaniard, who started fourth in the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, utilized his infamous pit strategy with an early overcut to jump to the front and control the last 62 of 100 laps. In the end he beat out pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin by 12.4948s on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit. Palou led 59 laps.

McLaughlin, in the #3 Team Penske Chevrolet, led 34 laps on the day. Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard climbed from 12th to the third and final spot on the podium.

Kyle Kirkwood, who started 15th in the #27 Andretti Global Honda, lost out on a second-place effort after being forced to save fuel and faded to fourth. Pato O'Ward finished fifth in the #5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

Marcus Ericsson, who started alongside McLaughlin on the front row in second, was a challenger early on before fading down to sixth. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden turned in a motivated drive, charging from 23rd to finish seventh.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean converted a sixth-place start into an eighth-place finish. Rinus VeeKay, in the #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, finished ninth, just ahead of Dale Coyne Racing rookie Dennis Hauger in 10th.

The Race

McLaughlin got a clean getaway at the start, but it didn’t take long for chaos to ensue behind. As the field blew through Turn 4, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb clipped the inside of the curb and bounced into Santino Ferrucci's No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. The two ended up into the tire barrier, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s rookie Mick Schumacher, making his series debut, climbing up and over the back of Ferrucci’s car. Robb continued on and was penalized for avoidable contact, while Ferrucci and Schumacher were forced to retire.

During the caution, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon pitted twice to top off on fuel.

A restart on Lap 5 saw another clean getaway by McLaughlin, but trouble struck his teammate not long after as David Malukas flat spotted his left-front going into Turn 1. It was significant enough that the tire ripped apart several laps later and forced Malukas down the running order after going off course and returning to the pits for a fresh set of rubber.

Will Power's 45th birthday turned sour as contact in Turn 10, the same place he crashed during second practice, led to a pit stop on Lap 21. The Andretti crew saw enough on the right-rear suspension to take it behind the wall. He managed to return around the halfway mark, albeit 30 laps down.

Pit stops began on Lap 31. The cycle saw McLaughlin, who pitted on lap 35, while Ericsson and Palou jumped him by using the overcut.

Dixon cycled to the lead, but shortly after pitting was hit with trouble as his right-rear tire wasn’t secured and came off the car on the approach to Turn 4 on Lap 40.

Palou cycled to the lead, ahead of Ericsson and McLaughlin. The restart came out on Lap 43 and saw Palou methodically march to a gap by over 7s by Lap 60.

Ericsson’s pace began to fade and McLaughlin took advantage with an inside pass into turn 1 on Lap 65. Ericsson then struggled to fend off other challenges as Arrow McLaren’s Lundgaard also jumped him. Mercifully, Ericsson was brought into the pits on Lap 66 for a set of softer alternate tires.

Palou pitted on Lap 67 after amassing a 14s lead and swapped soft tires for a set of the harder primaries.

Kirkwood, using an undercut, jumped the majority of his rivals and got ahead of McLaughlin—with an aggressive outside pass in Turn 4—during the pit cycle.

Palou held a 5.58s lead on Kirkwood with 20 laps to go, with McLaughlin 6.5s back in third.

McLaughlin and Lundgaard jumped Kirkwood, who was trying to save fuel, with six laps to through Turn 10.

Despite late pressure by Lundgaard, McLaughlin held him off to finish second as Palou walked off with the win.

Photos from St. Pete - Race

RACE

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	100	01:52:21.6997		96.118	2	54
2	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	100	+12.4948 1:52'34.1945	12.4948	95.9400	2	41
3	C. Lundgaard Arrow McLaren	7	100	+12.9154 1:52'34.6151	0.4206	95.9340	2	36
4	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27	100	+25.2738 1:52'46.9735	12.3584	95.7590	2	32
5	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	100	+26.0754 1:52'47.7751	0.8016	95.7480	2	30
6	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28	100	+26.2563 1:52'47.9560	0.1809	95.7450	2	29
7	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	100	+26.4219 1:52'48.1216	0.1656	95.7430	2	27
8	R. Grosjean Dale Coyne Racing	18	100	+28.0389 1:52'49.7386	1.6170	95.7200	2	24
9	R. van Kalmthout Juncos Hollinger Racing	76	100	+28.7151 1:52'50.4148	0.6762	95.7110	3	22
10	D. Hauger Dale Coyne Racing	19	100	+29.8722 1:52'51.5719	1.1571	95.6940	2	20
11	M. Armstrong Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	66	100	+30.4683 1:52'52.1680	0.5961	95.6860	2	19
12	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	60	100	+30.8105 1:52'52.5102	0.3422	95.6810	3	18
13	D. Malukas Team Penske	12	100	+33.7756 1:52'55.4753	2.9651	95.6390	3	17
14	L. Foster Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	100	+38.0390 1:52'59.7387	4.2634	95.5790	3	17
15	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	8	100	+38.9093 1:53'00.6090	0.8703	95.5670	2	15
16	A. Rossi Ed Carpenter Racing	20	100	+49.6127 1:53'11.3124	10.7034	95.4160	4	14
17	C. Collet A.J. Foyt Enterprises	4	100	+1'01.9774 1:53'23.6771	12.3647	95.2430	3	13
18	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	100	+1'03.1343 1:53'24.8340	1.1569	95.2260	2	12
19	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	21	100	+1'03.1912 1:53'24.8909	0.0569	95.2260	3	11
20	N. Siegel Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	6	99	+1 Lap 1:52'23.5695	1 Lap	95.1310	3	10
21	R. Robb Sting Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	93	+7 Laps 1:52'24.9430	6 Laps	89.3470	5	9
	W. Power Andretti Global	26	55	+45 Laps 1:37'24.3085	38 Laps	60.9820	2	8	Retirement
	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	39	+61 Laps 44'55.9111	16 Laps	93.7420	3	8	Accident
	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	0	+100 Laps 2.3605	39 Laps	0.0000		6	Collision
	M. Schumacher Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	47	0	+100 Laps 2.8168	0.4563	0.0000		5	Collision
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