Christian Lundgaard leads Arrow McLaren effort with third in St. Petersburg

The Dane charged from 12th to third in the IndyCar Series season-opener

Christian Lundgaard was blunt in his assessment of expectations, and it wasn’t capturing a third-place finish in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

“It wasn't really what I expected waking up this morning,” Lundgaard said. “It was what I hoped for. That was the mentality last year. It was just be competitive, knocking on the door, and the results will come. I think that was showcased today as well.”

It’s a strong result considering the 24-year-old Dane endured a less-than-ideal qualifying outing and was left starting 12th. Regardless, though, he knew they had a good challenger with the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

“We just very clearly just missed it in qualifying yesterday,” Lundgaard said. “We made some changes after P2 (second practice) that just simply didn't work. Got out of the car. Obviously, didn't transfer from Q2 and wasn't necessarily that upset, because I knew exactly where we had gone wrong. It was just undo that, and I think the car just came alive like we expected it to today.

“Again, you have to do the job out there, and I thought it was a very exciting way to start out the season.”

The outing marked Lundgaard’s best result in five starts on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit. Additionally, it’s his seventh podium in the 18 races he’s been with Arrow McLaren. Uniquely, though, this momentum comes with a new race strategist in Kyle Moyer, who was on teammate Nolan Siegel’s timing stand last year after joining from Team Penske midseason.

“Yeah, I feel like we very much left where we picked off in Nashville last year,” Lundgaard said.

“I think next week will be very interesting for us with obviously Moyer on the stand, which feels very funny now sitting next to Scottie (Scott McLaughlin, who was with Moyer before he was fire from Penske) here.

“Ultimately, we knew the car was fast this weekend. We knew it was fast here last year. We simply just made a mistake in qualifying, and we made up for it in the race, but to go out there and put the results on a paper feels nice now.”

Overall, it was a strong race for Arrow McLaren, with Pato O’Ward finishing fifth to put two of the team’s cars in near the pointy end of the field. Lundgaard did have to go through O’Ward, which happened on Lap 66 of 100 following a close call with Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, who was struggling with grip on a worn set of used softer alternate tires.

“Yeah, I think I was behind him for a good 20 laps when I started getting annoyed of seeing the back of his car,” Lundgaard said.

“Then once the pit sequence started, some of the three-stoppers were holding us up at that point, and I got around him, which was around the Ericsson part.

“Ericsson fought hard to try to keep that position. I had to fight to get by him. I had to be very aggressive to get by him, which was very nice. It gave me some clean air to catch up to Scottie at that point, but ultimately, I think our cars are good, and I think we will be in the hunt this year.”

There is that one guy, though, reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, who won the race-record 12.4948s margin of victory.

"Yeah, every time I'm on the podium, second or third, he's first,” Lundgaard said. “It's pretty annoying (smiling)."