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Rookie bliss turns to frustration at Grand Prix of St. Petersburg’s finish

Robert Wickens seems to the have the race in hand ... until tangling up with Alexander Rossi runs him into the wall.
 
Published March 11, 2018

ST. PETERSBURG — Robert Wickens dominated in his IndyCar debut Sunday, leading 69 of 110 laps after starting on the pole in the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Alexander Rossi surged to second place early after starting 12th and set the race's fastest lap.

Both fought for the win on a restart with two laps left. Then they banged wheels exiting Turn 1, and, just like that, they mutually sealed their frustrating fate.

Eventual winner Sebastien Bourdais and runnerup Graham Rahal skated past both leaders. Rossi, of Andretti Autosport, got back underway quickly enough to salvage a third-place finish. Wickens hit the wall entering Turn 2 on the street course and wound up 18th for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
Wickens and Rossi blamed each other for the incident.

"He defended the position, which he has a right to do, but … he put me in the marbles (loose bits of rubber that come off the tires) pretty late in the corner," Rossi said. "When you're put in the marbles, it's hairy. You never want to see that happen. I feel bad because I feel like I could have won and he could have gotten second."

Wickens, though he looked very calm when he got out of the car, questioned Rossi's method.

"I defended a little bit but I realized if I went any further it would have been a blocking (penalty)," Wickens said. "So I let him take the inside and just broke as late as possible and gave him enough space on the inside. … In my opinion he just went too deep, locked the rears (back wheels) and slid into me."

Wickens also had an issue with the pace car on the final restart, saying he could not control the pace properly.

"I don't know what the series was doing, really," the Canadian said. "They 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 the whole day."

IndyCar, in a statement, said the pace lights were on for the last restart, but that "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."

As for his cool demeanor, Wickens said, "I'd like to think I'm pretty cool, but I explode from time to time. The guys did such a great job today. … You can call it calm but I'd call it disappointment."