Worst to First For Bourdais In IndyCar Opener At St. Petersburg

Story By: JOHN DOUGLAS / RPW – ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Sebastian Bourdais came to the Verizon INDYCAR Series opening round in St. Petersburg, Fla. with familiar surroundings. His former Champ Car crew and owner Dale Coyne at his side, The resident of Florida by way of France, proved that a winning combination can be hard to beat. Even after 11 years.

“Thank you for bringing my crew back, thanks for the opportunity,” Bourdais said to his crew via team radio.

The race had a shaky start as Graham Rahal lost control of his Rahal Letterman Honda in turn 3 on the first lap. Heavy contact with both the wall, and Charlie Kimball, ended both drivers chances for a solid run.

James Hinchcliffe assumed the early lead on the restart, pulling away from Will Power, Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan. They raced in that order until lap 15, when Power’s Team Penske crew called him to pit road. Power’s strategy call for fuel early and a switch to the harder black Firestone tire backfired though, as he ran over his tire gun exiting the pit. It would cost him a drive through penalty.

The key move of the race came on lap 23, when Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud, Sato and a smattering of others pitted for fuel and tires.

Just two circuits later, Tony Kanaan and Mikhail Aleshin came into contact causing a caution for debris mid-pit cycle. Those who pitted prior to the caution cycled to the front of the field, putting Pagenaud and Bourdais on the front row for the restart.

The lap 31 restart saw Ed Jones, the rookie from England and Bourdais teammate make a stellar out braking maneuver on Marco Andretti. Not to be out done, Bourdais did the same to leader Simon Pagenaud on lap 37 entering turn one.

Pagenaud spent the rest of the race trying to erase the gap between himself and his fellow Frenchman but Bourdais played lapped traffic perfectly, throwing hurdles in front of the defending series champion the rest of the afternoon.

Bourdais took the victory, with Paenaud, Dixon, Ryan Hunter Reay and Sato completing the top five.

Bourdais, visibly exhausted and emotional in victory lane, told ESPN’s Rick DeBruhl, “This is probably the hardest race track to recover at and the hardest track to pass.”
When asked how it felt to be together with his old crew and Dale Coyne again Bourdais replied, ” It’s the first one with the band back together. We probably won’t have many more days like that.”

Pagenaud was able to find the positive n his second place finish, “I first want to congratulate Sebastian and his team on what they did today. My whole team worked very hard. It was prbably our toughest race since 2016. I’m happy with second place. We finished there last year so hopefully it is lucky.”

For complete race results and point standings, visit: www.indycar.com