Colton Herta earned his fourth IndyCar Series win in the St Petersburg race, holding off Josef Newgarden a week after Newgarden’s first-lap spin wiped both out of the Barber opener.
Most of the leaders made the predicted two-stop strategy work, but a late caution with just over 20 laps to go bunched up the field and robbed polesitter Herta of his nearly 10 second lead after what had been a spectacularly dominant effort.
Newgarden – on the softer tyre which came up to temperature quickly but didn’t last as long as the hards – needed to move quickly on Herta, but another caution three laps after the restart chalked more laps off the board.
Andretti Autosport driver Herta conserved his push to pass while holding Newgarden half a second at bay, and into the final 10 laps the more durable harder tyre gave Herta some breathing room.
Having started behind Team Penske driver Newgarden at Barber and been caught up in his crash last week, it was a vital rebound result for both drivers to push them up the standings.
It was also Herta’s first street course win, as he stopped Newgarden from winning three races at this venue in a row.
Simon Pagenaud was another driver who had a poor season opener but has been back to form at St Pete for Penske, moving past second-place starter Jack Harvey in the pitstop phase to complete the podium.
Harvey – who didn’t score a top five in a really unlucky year with Meyer Shank Racing in 2020 – struggled on the soft tyre in the first stint which cost him some spots, but still earned a strong result.
Scott Dixon was the highest finisher who also scored a top five at Barber, taking fifth in a typically quiet but effective Dixon race.
Takuma Sato led Marcus Ericsson in sixth and seventh, as they proved to be two the stars of the race having started 15th and 16th respectively. They did their work on the track with some dicey moves through the field.
They were also helped by some drivers pitting earlier on to cover off a caution which never happened, which could have threatened their position but instead handed them spots.
Behind Ericsson, Will Power rebounded from what he called his worst qualifying ever to take eighth on a three stop strategy that required epic pace on track.
Rinus VeeKay was another driver to desperately struggle on the soft tyre early on and did well to take ninth from his sixth place start given his early slip down the order and early first stop.
VeeKay is still driving with a broken finger after the Ed Carpenter Racing driver crashed in Indianapolis testing three weeks ago.
Sebastien Bourdais rounded out the top 10 having qualified fifth, bringing home more valuable points after his Barber top five.
Scott McLaughlin was the top rookie in 11th – although he raced at the venue last year – while Romain Grosjean took 13th from 18th on the grid despite crashing with Power at Turn 10 early in the race and driving with damage throughout. Grosjean still holds a narrow lead over McLaughlin in the rookie standings for now, but will miss next week’s Texas double-header as he is not contesting the oval rounds.
Between McLaughlin and Grosjean was Felix Rosenqvist, who recovered from 17th on the grid to take 12th.
His Arrow McLaren SP team-mate Pato O’Ward turned sixth in qualifying into 19th after he and the team failed to improve his imbalanced car – much to O’Ward’s frustration – and then clashed with Ed Jones, who was already mid-collision with James Hinchcliffe at the time.
Last week’s Barber winner Alex Palou had been just outside the top 10 but pitted at the end of the race after hitting the wall and was classified 17th. That was still enough to keep him in the points lead.
Alexander Rossi was one of the big names missing from the lead fight. He’d worked his way into the top 10 after starting 11th, but then a slow stop and then a crash with Graham Rahal when he came out of the pits – and defended too robustly – put him two laps down.
That's not gone well.
Ride on-board with Graham Rahal as he and Alexander Rossi get together. Watch on @NBC: https://t.co/THKlb49aWT pic.twitter.com/JiEV2f5u89
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) April 25, 2021
Rahal recovered to 15th.
Jimmie Johnson’s race was another rollercoaster affair. Despite being some way off the pace in practice and qualifying, his mid-race pace was impressive on the soft tyre.
However, that came after he had crashed at the final hairpin on lap 22 and put himself four laps down.
He also caused the caution with just over 20 laps to go when he spun off Turn 3.
Race Results
Pos | Name | Team | Car | Laps | Laps Led | Total Time | Fastest Lap | Pitstops | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 97 | 1h51m51.411s | 1m01.637s | 2 | 54 |
2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +2.493s | 1m01.697s | 2 | 40 |
3 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 1 | +6.15s | 1m01.65s | 2 | 36 |
4 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +8.083s | 1m01.906s | 2 | 32 |
5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +8.95s | 1m01.909s | 2 | 30 |
6 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +11.68s | 1m01.901s | 2 | 28 |
7 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +11.939s | 1m01.706s | 2 | 26 |
8 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +13.236s | 1m01.862s | 3 | 24 |
9 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +13.719s | 1m01.971s | 2 | 22 |
10 | Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +15.995s | 1m01.973s | 2 | 20 |
11 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +17.593s | 1m01.628s | 3 | 19 |
12 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +18.564s | 1m01.94s | 3 | 18 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +22.728s | 1m02.213s | 3 | 17 |
14 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +24.128s | 1m02.269s | 3 | 16 |
15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 100 | 0 | +24.793s | 1m02.032s | 3 | 15 |
16 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 100 | 0 | +48.16s | 1m01.775s | 5 | 14 |
17 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 99 | 2 | +1 lap | 1m01.456s | 3 | 14 |
18 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 99 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m02.156s | 3 | 12 |
19 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 99 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m01.962s | 3 | 11 |
20 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan | Dallara DW12-Honda | 99 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m02.302s | 5 | 10 |
21 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 98 | 0 | +2 laps | 1m02.059s | 3 | 9 |
22 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 95 | 0 | +5 laps | 1m02.719s | 3 | 8 |
Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 67 | 0 | DNF | 1m02.742s | 2 | 7 | |
Max Chilton | Carlin | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 18 | 0 | DNF | 1m02.988s | 2 | 6 |
Driver Standings
Pos | Driver | Team | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | R13 | R14 | R15 | R16 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 549 | 53 | 14 | 33 | 27 | 36 | 85 | 15 | 35 | 51 | 35 | 26 | 5 | 10 | 52 | 40 | 32 |
2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 511 | 7 | 40 | 28 | 41 | 32 | 36 | 20 | 44 | 13 | 54 | 20 | 25 | 53 | 30 | 26 | 42 |
3 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 487 | 34 | 11 | 35 | 51 | 15 | 65 | 37 | 51 | 22 | 24 | 17 | 32 | 41 | 17 | 30 | 5 |
4 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 481 | 35 | 30 | 53 | 35 | 23 | 36 | 25 | 26 | 33 | 32 | 40 | 13 | 11 | 36 | 17 | 36 |
5 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 455 | 8 | 54 | 8 | 30 | 17 | 37 | 16 | 32 | 40 | 18 | 15 | 36 | 13 | 24 | 54 | 53 |
6 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 435 | 24 | 26 | 11 | 18 | 20 | 39 | 51 | 22 | 28 | 41 | 51 | 22 | 22 | 27 | 28 | 5 |
7 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 389 | 26 | 15 | 30 | 36 | 30 | 11 | 31 | 30 | 19 | 28 | 30 | 26 | 7 | 23 | 32 | 15 |
8 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 383 | 18 | 36 | 20 | 28 | 28 | 71 | 18 | 24 | 12 | 16 | 9 | 15 | 25 | 9 | 24 | 30 |
9 | Will Power | Team Penske | 357 | 41 | 24 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 10 | 13 | 28 | 35 | 5 | 16 | 53 | 37 | 17 | 5 | 20 |
10 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 332 | 22 | 9 | 24 | 10 | 26 | 10 | 27 | 17 | 26 | 30 | 13 | 32 | 13 | 40 | 5 | 28 |
11 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 324 | 17 | 28 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 33 | 32 | 18 | 25 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 28 | 18 | 5 | 22 |
12 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | 308 | 29 | 22 | 10 | 23 | 51 | 56 | 40 | 12 | 0 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 5 |
13 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 308 | 19 | 32 | 26 | 13 | 7 | 24 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 15 | 28 | 20 | 33 | 15 | 27 |
14 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 305 | 16 | 19 | 40 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 11 | 10 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 7 | 32 | 23 | 18 | 19 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 272 | 20 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 30 | 26 | 15 | 40 | 16 | 8 | 36 | 6 |
16 | Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 258 | 31 | 20 | 6 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 19 | 5 | 15 | 31 | 12 | 16 | 24 |
17 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 256 | 6 | 16 | 14 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 9 | 19 | 17 | 6 | 32 | 12 | 26 | 15 | 19 | 7 |
18 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 235 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 37 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 9 |
19 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan | 233 | 15 | 10 | 18 | 8 | 16 | 10 | 23 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 28 | 16 | 6 | 20 | 20 | 18 |
20 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | 220 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 35 | 8 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 16 |
21 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 205 | 9 | 18 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 24 | 17 | 14 | 28 | 11 | 17 |
22 | Hélio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 158 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 103 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 11 |
23 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 148 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 11 |
24 | Santino Ferrucci | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 146 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 28 | 20 | 0 | 22 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
25 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 134 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 21 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 15 |
26 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 108 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 13 | 13 |
27 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 107 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 20 | 0 | 66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
28 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 96 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 15 | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
29 | Oliver Askew | Arrow McLaren SP, Ed Carpenter Racing | 61 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 22 | 9 |
30 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Arrow McLaren SP | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
30 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
32 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 34 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
33 | J. R. Hildebrand | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
34 | Cody Ware | Daley Coyne Racing with RWR | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
35 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta-Haupert w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
36 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
37 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
38 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
39 | Stefan Wilson | Andretti Autosport | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
39 | Ryan Norman | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
39 | Simona De Silvestro | Paretta Autosport | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
42 | Kevin Magnussen | Arrow McLaren SP | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
43 | RC Enerson | Top Gun Racing | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |