The victory in the stage in St. Petersburg, from which the season started in IndyCar, was won by Markus Erickson. It seems that he is getting more and more confident, although in Formula 1 he did not differ in any particular speed. But last year he secured his place in American series history by winning the classic Indy 500 race, and now another success.
That Roman Grosjean, another former Formula 1 driver, won the pole in St. Petersburg, we talked about that, but he was unlucky on Sunday. He had a really good chance of winning, but on lap 72 of the race, as he overtook New Zealand Penske driver Scott McLaughlin, there was contact between their cars. Both went off track and crashed into the fences, and this was just one of many circumstances that ultimately saw victory go to Erickson.
With three laps to go (the total distance of the St. Petersburg Grand Prix is 100 laps), Marcus gave chase to Arrow McLaren’s driver Pato O’Ward, who was already leading at the time, but the Chevrolet engine on the Mexican Dallara suddenly went wrong, after which the road to victory was open for Marcus.
“The weekend was really successful for us,” said Erickson after the finish. – I think Chip Ganassi’s whole team did a great job in the off-season and we went to St. Petersburg with confidence. Today was one of those races where a lot happened. But we have a perfect start to the season – I wouldn’t say we couldn’t have won if the race hadn’t been interrupted by red flags, but it worked to our advantage.”
Marcus was referring to the incident on the first lap, when a massive blockage occurred at the third corner of the track, causing five cars to retire at once. In total, the race was interrupted five times due to various kinds of incidents, but Erickson was always lucky, all these hardships passed him by, and he took his fourth victory in IndyCar. By the way, three were won on city roads.
The next round of the season takes place after a nearly four-week break with a 375-mile race at Texas Oval Speedway.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
