St Petersburg IndyCar race results: McLaughlin wins season opener

McLaughlin led from pole position, as teammate Power slipped back to fourth on an alternate tire strategy, and held off reigning champion Alex Palou by half a second to take his maiden IndyCar win.

Power fought back to finish third, ahead of Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean.

St Petersburg IndyCar race results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	100	1:51'27.346			103.342
2	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	100	1:51'27.856	0.509	0.509	103.027
3	Will Power	Team Penske	100	1:51'29.813	2.467	1.957	104.485
4	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	100	1:51'43.190	15.844	13.377	104.967
5	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	100	1:51'45.799	18.452	2.608	103.395
6	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	100	1:51'47.998	20.651	2.198	103.947
7	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	100	1:51'48.764	21.418	0.766	103.471
8	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	100	1:51'49.374	22.027	0.609	103.220
9	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	100	1:51'49.714	22.367	0.339	103.474
10	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	100	1:51'50.620	23.274	0.906	104.042
11	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	100	1:51'51.771	24.424	1.150	103.494
12	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	100	1:51'53.621	26.275	1.850	101.567
13	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	100	1:51'59.015	31.668	5.393	102.886
14	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	100	1:52'00.945	33.598	1.929	103.165
15	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	100	1:52'01.561	34.214	0.616	103.806
16	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	100	1:52'03.606	36.260	2.045	103.199
17	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	100	1:52'06.382	39.036	2.775	103.688
18	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	100	1:52'25.470	58.124	19.087	102.283
19	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	100	1:52'26.068	58.722	0.598	102.124
20	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	100	1:52'26.510	59.163	0.441	102.538
21	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	100	1:52'27.482	1'00.135	0.972	102.058
22	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	100	1:52'30.207	1'02.861	2.725	102.691
23	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	99	1:51'41.008	1 Lap	1 Lap	102.042
24	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	97	1:51'33.368	3 Laps	2 Laps	102.228
25	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	62	1:27'32.766	38 Laps	35 Laps	20.585
26	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	23	25'12.177	77 Laps	39 Laps	103.632
View full results

Pole-winner McLaughlin led the charge to Turn 1 and held off an attack from Colton Herta, as Will Power dropped back to fourth, behind Rinus VeeKay, after getting sideways under power at the start on primary black tires – as opposed to almost everyone else on the alternate reds.

Romain Grosjean, who dropped back to sixth behind Marcus Ericsson, complained of front wing damage after making contact with Power at Turn 1.

McLaughlin pulled out a 3s by Lap 15 which stretched out to over 5s by Lap 20. Behind him, Power passed VeeKay for third, who was the first of the leaders to hit a cliff in terms of tire grip.

Ericsson passed VeeKay at Turn 10 on Lap 18, then Grosjean, Palou (who started 10^th) and Rahal (who, like Power, started on blacks) all pounced on him too, before he bailed to the pits.

Power passed Herta, who was also now struggling on reds, for second at Turn 1 on Lap 19 and began to carve into McLaughlin’s lead.

Rookie David Malukas caused the first caution on Lap 25, when hit the wall at Turn 3.

The majority of the field pitted, with Power switching to reds and almost getting into the back of McLaughlin as they their pit boxes. Behind them, Ericsson hit Rahal into Grosjean – which led to a costly penalty for the Swede.

Alexander Rossi, who hadn’t stopped at all, led from Scott Dixon, who had stopped on Lap 11. McLaughlin dropped to 13^th, running ahead of Power, Palou, Herta, Ericsson, Rahal and Grosjean.

At the restart, Palou passed Power and Rahal got by Herta – the latter repassing him a couple of laps later. Herta then also moved by Power.

Rossi gave up the lead on Lap 38, allowing Dixon to hit the front. He led until making his second stop just before half distance. VeeKay led for a while until making his second stop on Lap 62.

Back in front, McLaughlin headed Palou by 0.7s, with Herta pitting on Lap 64 (earlier than planned as they didn’t get all the fuel in last time) and McLaughlin a lap later. Palou was the last of the frontrunners to pit, but he wasn’t able to overcut McLaughlin for the lead.

Dixon took another turn out front until he pitted with 22 laps to go.

McLaughlin led Palou, who gained when teammate Jimmie Johnson held up the leader, while Power passed VeeKay for third. A fuel-saving VeeKay slumped to sixth in the final laps, allowing Herta and Grosjean past in the closing moments.

St Petersburg IndyCar race fastest laps

Cla	Drivers	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	53	1'00.986			106.253
2	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	47	1'01.353	0.366	0.366	105.617
3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	63	1'01.478	0.491	0.124	105.403
4	Will Power	Team Penske	64	1'01.537	0.550	0.058	105.302
5	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	71	1'01.639	0.652	0.102	105.128
6	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	100	1'01.733	0.746	0.094	104.967
7	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	46	1'01.740	0.754	0.007	104.955
8	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	93	1'01.788	0.801	0.047	104.875
9	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	96	1'01.794	0.807	0.006	104.864
10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	63	1'01.863	0.876	0.068	104.748
11	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	78	1'01.872	0.885	0.009	104.732
12	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	72	1'01.904	0.918	0.032	104.677
13	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	14	1'01.916	0.929	0.011	104.658
14	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	42	1'01.930	0.943	0.014	104.634
15	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	3	1'01.974	0.987	0.044	104.559
16	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	15	1'01.993	1.006	0.018	104.528
17	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	78	1'02.002	1.015	0.009	104.512
18	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	76	1'02.027	1.040	0.024	104.470
19	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	44	1'02.081	1.094	0.054	104.379
20	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	94	1'02.090	1.103	0.009	104.363
21	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	47	1'02.111	1.124	0.020	104.329
22	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	91	1'02.132	1.145	0.021	104.293
23	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	78	1'02.145	1.159	0.013	104.271
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	89	1'02.343	1.356	0.197	103.941
25	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	23	1'02.529	1.542	0.185	103.632
26	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	91	1'03.151	2.164	0.622	102.611
View full results