Dale Coyne Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais made a mid-race pass on Team Penske’s Simon Pageneau to win the opening race of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar season at St. Petersburg.
Pole sitter Will Power led the field to green, but the field didn’t make it to Turn 3 before the caution came out. When the track pinched after Turn 2, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball came together, which sent the two spinning and collected Carlos Munoz and Mikhail Aleshin.
When the field went back to green after a full course caution, James Hinchcliffe made a brilliant pass around the outside of Power to take the lead. The Canadian led the race until the second caution of the day came out on Lap 26 after Aleshin and Tony Kanaan made contact. The top seven racers then pitted, with Pagenaud winning the race off pit road with Bourdais in tow.
Six laps after the restart Bourdais passed Pagenaud for the lead. The two led the field until Bourdais pitted on Lap 82 and Pagenaud on Lap 83. They inherited the top positions once again after the second pit cycle – Bourdais successfully defending against Pagenaud to take the win.
The Verizon IndyCar Series will continue with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 9th. Click here for full results from St. Petersburg.
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