Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, 8-10 March.
The waiting and the long off season are almost over, as this Sunday's 2018 season opener at St. Pete is nearly upon us.
Four year's ago, saw the introduction of aero-kits from the two engine manufacturers, Chevrolet and Honda. The idea was to produce some visual variation and brand identity for both manufacturers, in what is a spec chassis. Chevrolet produced the dominant package, winning the Driver's Championship and Manufacturer's Cup from 2015 - 2017, though Honda won the Indy 500 in 2016 and '17.
Last year the Univeral aero-Kit make its race debut. A lot of praise had been heaped on the new aero-kit by drivers, teams and fans. For the drivers, the car is more challenging to drive, for teams it is much cheaper and for fans it is visually appealing, with the appearance similar to the Lolas, Reynards and Penskes, that raced before the split.
This will be the 15th running of the race on the current course and the 14th as an IndyCar event. The race was first held as part of the SCCA Trans-Am Series, on the downtown waterfront circuit, from 1985-1990 but when local residents and businesses complained about the noise it was cancelled. It returned briefly from 1996-1997 on a new course around Tropicana Field. After a second hiatus, the event returned in 2003 but as a Champ Car race, using a modified layout of the original 1985–90 waterfront circuit. In 2004, the event was cancelled due to a dispute between the promoters but returned in 2005, this time as part of the IRL IndyCar Series, making this the first non-oval event for the Indy Racing League.
Some trivia:
The driver with most wins: 3, Hélio Castroneves, 2006, 2007, 2012.
The team with most wins: 9, Team Penske, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016.
Track layout:
Length: 1.8 Miles (2.9 Km)
Turns: 14
Lap record:
Jordan King, March 10, 2018. 1:00.047, 107.914 Mph (173.670 Km/h).
Ed Carpenter Racing,
Dallara IR12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6.
Verizon IndyCar Series.
Last year's race:
Wickens started from the pole position and was vying to become the first driver to win an IndyCar race in his debut since Buzz Calkins in 1996, at Walt Disney World Speedway. Others drivers who also achieved this were Nigel Mansell, 1993, Surfers Paradise, Australia and Graham Hill, 1966, Indianapolis 500.
On Lap 1 Ryan Hunter-Reay immediately pitted for an ECU reboot from the while Will Power spun at Turn 2, as he ran out of room and went up on the curb to avoid running into polesitter Wickens, who had taken the lead. Power’s spin sent him rear-first, backing the car it into the wall on the exit of Turn 1.
As the first lap unfolded, Tony Kanaan was sent nose-first into the wall after colliding with Zach Veach, while Charlie Kimball spinning and stalling his car and bringing out thefirst full course yellow. As soon as the pits were open, Power was in for a replacement rear wing and a new set of tires and Hunter-Reay came for a fuel top-up.
The restart saw three rookies, Wickens, Jordan King, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet and AJ Foyt Racing’s Matheus Leist, lead the charge to the green, with King passing Wickens for P1. All seemed in order until the following lap, when Rahal and Pigot came together at Turn 1.
Pigot stalled, bringing out a second yellow. The following restart saw King and Wickens lead Rossi, Leist, Hinchcliffe, Sato, Pagenaud, Dixon, Chaves and Newgarden. However, King ran wide on the restart allowing Wickens back in front, while Leist grabbed third from Rossi, as Dixon and Chaves demoted Pagenaud.
It was only a temporary setback for Rossi who was back up to second on Lap 12, though 3 seconds behind Wickens. Two laps later, the gap was down to 2 seconds, with King 3 seconds down on the leader. Leist was stuck in fourth and cruising to the pits, promoting Sato, Hinchcliffe, Dixon, Chaves, Pagenaud, Andretti and Kanaan.
Wickens and Rossi were in a race of their own, just 1.3 seconds apart and 6 seconds up on King, while further down the top six, Hinchcliffe and Dixon stopped on Lap 20. Pagenaud appeared to stall in his first stop and fell behind the Jones, Newgarden, Power, Hunter-Reay battle.
Rossi managed to make his reds last until Lap 23 before pitting for blacks, while King went a lap longer and Wickens a lap further still, leaving the 2017 St. Pete winner Bourdais up front, after stopping under caution on Lap 4 for a puncture. Wickens rejoined with three cars between himself and Rossi, comfortably holding the lead. Fellow rookie Leist's race ended a few laps later. After being 12 laps down while having his electronics fixed, he was released from pitlane with the fuel equipment still attached. H returned to pitlane for a drive-thru and then crashed on the exit of Turn 3, bringing out the third full course yellow
The restart was clean and the next lap saw Dixon dive down the inside of Hinchcliffe and run into the back of Sato, breaking the front wing of his car and punctiring Sato's right-rear tyre. Dixon was penalised or avoidable contact, which sent him to the back of the field. Meanwhile, King chose this opportunity to pit as he had a deflating tire.
At the next restart, Bourdais led Wickens, Rossi, team mate Zachary Claman de Melo, Jack Harvey in the third SPM car, Marco Andretti, Rahal, Hinchcliffe, Newgarden and Power. However Wickens sliced up the inside of Bourdais to take the lead. Rossi and Andretti did likewise to drop Bourdais to fourth. But it was Team Penske president Tim Cindric, who appeared to pull a masterstroke, bringing Newgarden into the pits just before the fifth full course yellow, due to Jack Harvey’s damaged car sitting at the Turn 14 hairpin.
Newgarden was able to rejoin with a full tank of fuel and at the back of the field, waiting for everyone else to make their second stops – or third, in some cases. But when the pits opened again, Newgarden returned to the pits for another top-up. Bourdais, meanwhile, pitted and resumed 14th, with De Melo also stopping.
The restart on Lap 45, saw Wickens, Rossi, Andretti now on reds, Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay, Pigot on reds, Kanaan, Power, Chaves and Pagenaud as the top 10, and for once they stayed in this order for a lap, although Andretti did have a long look at Rossi. On failing to get through, he would swiftly drop 5sec behind the 2016 Indy 500 champion, and he’d have to work hard to hold off Hinchcliffe. Up front at the halfway point, meanwhile, Wickens was driving like a series veteran – in fact, way better than most of the veterans who had blundered at some point during the race.
Wickens stopped on Lap 60 for more blacks, allowing Rossi in front, as Hinchcliffe followed his SPM teammate in, while Rossi also grabbed fresh blacks but one lap later. However, the Andretti driver emerged four seconds down on the flying Wickens, and although the Canadian was caught up behind Rahal who was due a stop, he disposed of him at the start of Lap 65 and closed in on leader Bourdais, who tried to respond with his fastest lap of the race. Hinchcliffe was keeping the second SPM car in the mix too, passing Ed Jones for fifth on Lap 68 to try and close down on Rossi who was only inching up on Rahal’s third-place car.
Andretti got back into the Top 10 with a pass on Claman De Melo’s Coyne car, while Rossi passed Rahal for third on Lap 75, and started trying to carve into Bourdais’ lead. Bourdais pitted on Lap 77, as did Rahal, Jones, Dixon, Newgarden, and De Melo.
Dixon’s day went from bad to worse when he got a drive-through penalty for a pit speed violation. Andretti stopped on Lap 79, then Wickens, Hinchcliffe and Power pitted on 81, with Rossi hitting pitlane on Lap 83.
Briefly Hunter-Reay took the lead but all eyes were on the Wickens vs Rossi vs Bourdais battle for what would effectively be the lead when RHR pitted on Lap 85. Wickens was 2.9sec ahead of Rossi who in turn had 4.3sec on Bourdais. Rossi chiseled the lead down to six tenths of a second on Lap 90.
With 12 laps to go, the leading pair came up to lap Kimball and Claman De Melo. Kimball made it easy but Rossi slid wide and dropped to 3 seconds behind Wickens. However within a couple of laps there was a reprieve, when Rookie, Rene Binder slid into the tire wall at Turn 10, bringing out the yellow and bunching the field. There were four laps left by the time the green flag flew.
The restart was clean until Chilton spun and stalled it, bringing out a yellow. Then there were just two laps to go at the final green and that restart turned chaotic.
Rossi dived down the inside of Wickens but the rear end was already swinging out wide under hard braking before the apex and it struck Wicken's car, sending him into the tire wall. That slowed Rossi enough to allow Bourdais through to take his second successive win at St. Petersburg, with Rahal in an unlikely second place up from the back of the grid. No action was taken over Rossi’s indiscretion, so he got to keep third place and complete the podium.
This was Bourdais's repeat win and was the 37th victory of his IndyCar career, which ranks the four-time Champ Car champion, sixth on the all-time list and trails Al Unser Sr. by two wins for fifth place.
Pole:
Robert Wickens, 1:01.664, 105.085 Mph (169.117 Km/h)
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy.
Winner:
Sébastien Bourdais,
Dale Coyne Racing,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy.
Laps 110
Distance 198 Miles (318.65 Km)
Race Time 2:17:48
Average Speed 86.207 Mph (169.117 Km/h)
Caution periods: 8
Caution laps: 11
Race Broadcast:
NBCSN.
Sunday, March 10. 1:30pm ET.