Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, 25 - 27 February.

[chunterer]

Well done Scotty!! What a start to the season all round.

Some great drives throughout the field today too. Dixon was brilliant even on his strategy. He pulled, what, 13 or 14 secs on Pato after the 2nd stops, who was his main rival.

Mentions for Palou who was mr consistent, Pato for his incredible opening lap gains, Veekay for showing he's back in form, Lundgaard for getting into the top 10 during the race, Ilott for keeping Scotty at bay for a long period. Kirkwood showed pace at times, Heck even Calderon gave a good account of herself in her first race.

It's going to be a helluva season!

[cavvy]

[QUOTE=chunterer;4100568]Well done Scotty!! What a start to the season all round.

Some great drives throughout the field today too. Dixon was brilliant even on his strategy. He pulled, what, 13 or 14 secs on Pato after the 2nd stops, who was his main rival.

Mentions for Palou who was mr consistent, Pato for his incredible opening lap gains, Veekay for showing he's back in form, Lundgaard for getting into the top 10 during the race, Ilott for keeping Scotty at bay for a long period. Kirkwood showed pace at times, Heck even Calderon gave a good account of herself in her first race.

It's going to be a helluva season![/QUOTE]


From downunder : fair dinkum unbelievable !!

Another Kiwi kicking goals.
Well done to everyone involved in making this happen, especially Roger Penske, can he pick'em ...

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Result:
A good race and a good start to the season, particularly for Scott McLaughlin and Team Penske. That was a good drive from Alex Palou, showing us why he is the reigning champion and solid drives from both Romain Grosjean and Rinus Veekay.

Just going on this result, we could be in for a close three-way battle between Andretti Autosport, Ganassi and Penske; I'm looking forward to the rest of the season already. However, Round 2 at TMS isn't until March 20, so a bit of a wait.

Scotty led 49 laps out of 100. Very impressive.

[kobefly]

Good race! Great win by McLaughlin and a very solid performance by Palou. Looks like a very interesting season is ahead.

On the other hand, Calderon on an IndyCar is not only slow but, in my opinion, dangerous. She could not compete in F3 (GP3) or F2 even if she spent several seasons in those series (in which other drivers have one-season opportunities). She was also very slow in Super Formula. And no, she was not Sauber´s Tester, she just drove that F1 a few time$$$ and not in real tests.

[RWill2073]

Is this pagenaud 2.0? Poor first season with penske, wins first race in year 2, and kick starts a championship run for McLaughlin?

Rossi was nowhere. Is he just a lost cause as an indycar driver at this point? This would be 3 straight poor seasons...

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by kobefly

Good race! Great win by McLaughlin and a very solid performance by Palou. Looks like a very interesting season is ahead.

On the other hand, Calderon on an IndyCar is not only slow but, in my opinion, dangerous. She could not compete in F3 (GP3) or F2 even if she spent several seasons in those series (in which other drivers have one-season opportunities). She was also very slow in Super Formula. And no, she was not Sauber´s Tester, she just drove that F1 a few time$$$ and not in real tests.

Looking back it was Simona not Tatiana I was thinking of re Sauber positive reps. My bad.

[NaBUru38]

I said before the race that a 2-stop strategy was pretty much impossible, but many drivers proved me wrong.

[mstets]

Interesting to note that Daly had the fastest lap of the race, about .35 quicker than Dixon and .5 quicker than McLaughlin. Poor starting position combined with a three stop plan resulted in a forgettable result for Daly but both ECR cars showed competitive race pace.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Well done Scotty!! What a start to the season all round.

Some great drives throughout the field today too. Dixon was brilliant even on his strategy. He pulled, what, 13 or 14 secs on Pato after the 2nd stops, who was his main rival.

Mentions for Palou who was mr consistent, Pato for his incredible opening lap gains, Veekay for showing he's back in form, Lundgaard for getting into the top 10 during the race, Ilott for keeping Scotty at bay for a long period. Kirkwood showed pace at times, Heck even Calderon gave a good account of herself in her first race.

It's going to be a helluva season!

Were Dixon and O'Ward on different tires during that stint? Just looking at starting and finishing positions of the drivers that did three stops, Pato improved 4 positions from his starting spot while Dixon fell one. Of the three stoppers, Harvey improved the most - from 23rd at the start to 13th at the finish. He was one of the first to pit. I don't remember what tires he started on but I'm guessing reds, which would have put him on blacks for about 90% of the distance. Rosenqvist also made 3 stops and improved 4 positions from where he started. Most if not all of the others that made three stops fell in the finishing order.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

Rossi was nowhere. Is he just a lost cause as an indycar driver at this point? This would be 3 straight poor seasons...

I wouldn't write him off just yet. He was pretty much on pace during practice and qualifying but couldn't do much after the strategy call which buried him in the field after his 2nd stop. I don't remember where he was running when the rest of the two stoppers made their last stops but I'd guess he was a lot closer to the front than 20th.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by mstets

I wouldn't write him off just yet. He was pretty much on pace during practice and qualifying but couldn't do much after the strategy call which buried him in the field after his 2nd stop. I don't remember where he was running when the rest of the two stoppers made their last stops but I'd guess he was a lot closer to the front than 20th.

He was closer but came in earlier and that does not work at St Pete, you have to go longer. Got mired further back and passing while others are trying is tough, and he seems to just settle in if he's out of the podium