[h=2]Rossi defends late-race St. Pete move[/h] Sunday, 11 March 2018


By RACER Staff / Image by Abbott/LAT


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Alexander Rossi thinks there's no reason he couldn't go for the move that led to the collision with race leader Robert Wickens, ruining the day for two of the strongest cars all race long.

"They made it very clear in the drivers' meeting that the rule on blocking was you can't move in reaction," Rossi said of his attempt, which was reviewed by IndyCar with no action taken. "If [Wickens] defended the inside, initially, yeah, out of Turn 13 or even halfway down the straight, and then I continued to go to the inside down the white line, then yeah, that's my decision and that's putting my car in danger, but there's no reason why I can't pop and stay next to him.
"I don't have to be all four cars in the part of the track that – all four wheels on the part of the track nobody goes on."
The restart with two laps to go could have been a do-over for Rossi, who had a chance on a lap 106 restart that ended with a small slide and loss of about two seconds. Knowing it was going to be hard to catch Wickens a second time – "I put a lot of pressure on him and he didn't make a mistake [on the second-to-last restart]" – Rossi said he got the push-to-pass call and had a jump and moved inside to try for the lead once again.

"Normally they don't allow Push-to-Pass on restarts," he said. "You'd normally have to do a timed lap before you did it, but because of the late call to go green that lap, they allowed it, and I actually got the call when I was in the middle of Turn 13 and 14.
"So I had a big jump on Rob, and he got to the Push-to-Pass pretty late. The run was perfect for me going into Turn 1, and I knew there wasn't going to be very many other opportunities. Obviously he had a good car all day, and they did a great job.
"Yeah, made the pop. He defended the position, which he has the right to do, but in doing so, in moving the reaction, he put me into the marbles pretty late into the corner. It's difficult with these cars and with how much we're sliding around in the first place, even on the racing line.
"When you're put in the marbles, it's hairy. Super unfortunate. Like you never want to see that happen. I feel bad because I feel like I could have won and he could have gotten second. You never want to see that happen, but nevertheless, it was a great job by the whole team all weekend."
Asked if braking earlier could have stopped a collision or if his "goose was cooked," as soon as he hit the brake pedal, Rossi responded: "My goose was totally rare until he continued to move in the braking zone and put me even more into the marbles.
"I had no problem pulling it up. I wasn't locked up or anything.
For his part, Wickens said if Rossi wanted to make the move, "go for it."
“I need to see it before I comment on anything but I didn’t really want to defend too hard because there was so much marbles offline so I figured if Alexander wants to go there, go for it," he said.
"I gave him space around the outside. I broke late. I made the corner and then we had some contact and obviously it put me into a spin into the wall. I ended my day with one lap left in the race. Not the way I imagined the day going for me or my Lucas Oil guys.

 

[h=2]Bourdais repeats at St. Pete as Wickens, Rossi crash[/h] Sunday, 11 March 2018


By Robin Miller / Image by LePage/LAT



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Alexander Rossi went for it, Robert Wickens got punted out of the lead and Sebastian Bourdais scored another unlikely victory at St. Pete in one of the craziest IndyCar season openers in recent memory Sunday afternoon.


Wickens, the rookie pole-sitter who led 69 of the 110 laps and drove flawlessly for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, was out in front with two laps to go on the restart when Rossi tried to dive under him going into Turn 1.
The 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner slid into Wickens and spun him while fighting for control, but Bourdais and Graham Rahal both got by him before the full-course yellow came on to end the 110-lap race.
"I need to see a video to know [what happened] for sure. I didn't get the best restart in the world but that didn't matter," Wickens said. "I braked late into T1, I defended a bit, I gave him space on the inside and he couldn't keep it and I guess he just slid into me."
"It would have been a fairytale to finish that one out but I guess it wasn't to be. Just happy that I was competitive this weekend."
So Bourdais, who came from last to first here a year ago with some nifty strategy and help from timely cautions, repeated his performance by using pace and seven full-course yellows to come from 14th to first.
"This one is emotional because we had overcome a few bumps and rolls and a bald tire and a few broken bones," said the 39-year-old veteran from France who was badly injured last May during qualifying at Indianapolis.
"I couldn't be happier for the team, it's a tiny group but they work their tails off. I was heartbroken for Robert but for us ... I can't quite put it into words."
Driving for Dale Coyne, Bourdais led a Honda rout as Rahal went from 24th to second in his RLL Honda, Rossi wound up third in his Andretti Honda, James Hinchcliffe was fourth in the other SPM Honda and Ryan Hunter-Reay placed fifth in the another Andretti Honda.
Defending IndyCar champ Josef Newgarden was the highest-finishing Chevy in seventh place.
The race began with Will Power trying to wrestle away the lead from Wickens on the outside, only to see the two-time St. Pete winner spin as he put the power down in Turn 2.
On the restart, rookie Jordan King got underneath Wickens to take the lead but that was short-lived as he went wide on Lap 7 and Wickens reclaimed the top spot. The Canadian who was trying to become the first driver to win his debut since Buzz Calkins in 1996 at Orlando, maintained the lead for 24 of the final 25 laps and repeatedly held off Rossi’s charge.
The new aero kit proved to be a handful all afternoon for champions and newcomers alike. Scott Dixon plowed into Takuma Sato and Rahal punted Spencer Pigot – both in Turn 1 where Rossi contacted Wickens – while rookies Matheus Leist and Jack Harvey made heavy contact with the wall in separate incidents.

 

[h=2]"He carried on to a podium, and I ended up in the fence" - Wickens[/h] Sunday, 11 March 2018


By Marshall Pruett / Image by IMS Photo


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Canadian IndyCar rookie Robert Wickens belonged atop the podium in his debut race for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Starting from pole, Wickens led five times, totaling 69 laps in the 110-lap contest, and had the makings of a fairytale beginning in his hands.

That story took an unpredictable turn when contact with Alexander Rossi during a confusing restart pitched the No. 6 SPM Honda into the wall on Lap 109. And with the Andretti Autosport driver holding on to finish third, the race's most dominant driver was not impressed with being relegated to 18th at the checkered flag.


"Obviously it didn't end well at all," he said. "But the restart was the restart. I felt like I wasn't able to get the jump that I needed to get a gap. We both were on the Push-to-Pass. He obviously got a slipstream.
"I defended a little bit, but then I realized if I went any further, it would have been a blocking, so I opened up, let him take the inside and just broke as late as possible and gave him enough space on the inside. And from my point of view, he broke too late, the track was too dirty off line. It's been terrible there all day. It's been a battle all weekend. Even in warm-up it was really hard whenever you tried it.
"But my opinion, he just went too deep, locked the rears and slid into me. There's really no other explanation to it. The only pity is he carried on to a podium, and I ended up in the fence."
The Verizon IndyCar Series handed out a penalty earlier in the race to Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon for avoidable contact. After adding more details about the Turn 1 surface conditions, Wickens found it odd that Rossi escaped without one of his own during the last two laps. And with the final race results locked into place shortly after the race with Rossi firmly in third, the case appeared to be closed.
"I was so slippery on the paint, on braking almost everywhere, but that kind of carried through the whole weekend, so it wasn't really a big surprise, but it actually online got pretty grippy by the end in Turn 1, but on the contrary it made offline even worse," he said.
"Passing was always tough. You never knew how hard to go or how late to do it. But I think maybe Alex found the limit because as far as I'm aware, he's not getting a penalty for what he did, which is kind of interesting to me."
Beyond his obvious frustration, Wickens gave credit to his SPM team that, until the race-ending contact, was on pace to record the best performance in the field after teammate James Hinchcliffe came home fourth.
"I want to make it very clear I'm very proud of the job that I did today," he added. "I mean, there's no – for sure I'm disappointed, but in your rookie race – also, honestly, that's why I didn't really fight him that hard. I gave him more than enough space on the inside because even if I finished P2, I would have been ecstatic. It's just a shame. The day went so well, the whole weekend went so well, getting a surprise pole, and to be honest, even myself, I'm like, can I convert this into a full 110-lap race?
"And I think we've proved to a lot of people that we could, and the team is capable of it. I just felt like I was in a good zone today. We controlled the pace. I could build a gap when I needed to build a gap. I was hitting the fuel targets we had set and still building gaps. It was just a good day until the 109th lap."

 

[h=2]Wickens rues pace car confusion on restart[/h] Sunday, 11 March 2018


Mark Glendenning / Image by IndyCar


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Robert Wickens says that confusion over the pace car lights contributed to the poor final restart that exposed him to the ill-fated attack from Alexander Rossi in the closing stages of the IndyCar curtain-raiser at St Petersburg on Sunday.

The Canadian rookie had controlled much of the race in his Schmidt Peterson Motorsport entry and comfortably held the pursuing Rossi at bay during another restart a few laps earlier.
But for the last restart, the safety car lights did not turn off to indicate the imminent return to green. Rossi remained close enough to launch an attack as they entered Turn 1, resulting in contact that dumped Wickens from P1 to P18.

"I don't know what the series was doing really, but it never turned the lights off the pace car, and they did an entirely different pace car procedure than what they had done every other yellow flag procedure the whole day," he said. "As the leader I didn't have my opportunity to control the pace because if we had just followed the pace car the whole time, then he just came into the pit. So I want some explanation on that, to be honest with you."


Following the race, IndyCar issued a statement conceding that the lights had remained on, but confirming that all other protocol had been followed:
"INDYCAR acknowledged that the pace car lights remained on for the race's final restart, but the radio call for an impending restart was communicated by race control and the pace car pulled off the track as it had in previous situations."

 

Video at end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=DjcN8r_38lk

The RACER Channel Published on Mar 11, 2018

St. Petersburg race winner Sebastien Bourdais and RACER''s Marshall Pruett recap a wild day of racing to open the Verizon IndyCar Series season where crashes and contact angered some and altered the final outcome.

 

[h=1]Wickens Takes Shock St. Pete IndyCar Pole[/h]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7qvOk28zsE

Surprise St. Petersburg IndyCar polesitter Robert Wickens visits with RACER's Marshall Pruett to break down his stellar performance throughout qualifying where the rookie shocked the veterans.

 

[h=1]RACER: Saturday St Pete IndyCar Report
3,760 views[/h]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kecw0pFHhcc

Marshall Pruett and IndyCar star Sebastien Bourdais process a wild Saturday at St. Petersburg where rainfall in the middle of qualifying torpedoed some big names--including the Frenchman, who won last year's race--and rewarded those like polesitter Robert Wickens whose timing was perfect.