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IndyCar: Driver Power Rankings after St. Petersburg – Sebastien Bourdais on top

By Asher Fair

ST PETERSBURG, FL - MARCH 30: The sunrise over the track prior to the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at the Streets of St. Petersburg on March 30, 2014 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
ST PETERSBURG, FL - MARCH 30: The sunrise over the track prior to the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at the Streets of St. Petersburg on March 30, 2014 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /
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ST PETERSBURG, FL – (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
ST PETERSBURG, FL – (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /

With the first race of the 2018 IndyCar season in St. Petersburg in the rearview mirror, which drivers rank where in the driver power rankings?

Sebastien Bourdais opened up the 2018 IndyCar season with a victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is exactly how he opened up the 2017 IndyCar season.

Bourdais, the driver of the #18 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing, took advantage of a collision between race leaders Robert Wickens and Alexander Rossi right after a restart with two laps to go in the race.

After Wickens and Rossi made contact heading into turn 1, Bourdais shot from 3rd to 1st place before the caution flag came out with not enough laps remaining for another potential restart since there were under two laps to go in the 110-lap race. He went on to win the race under caution.

Bourdais’ victory is the 37th of his IndyCar career, and it gives him at least one victory in each of the last five seasons now. His most recent victory was in last year’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Later that season, he missed eight races as a result of injuries he suffered in a crash during Indianapolis 500 qualifications.

With the 2018 IndyCar season now officially underway and the new universal aero kit era having officially begun, this article marks the debut of our IndyCar Driver Power Rankings, as calculated by a new formula, which you can read more about in an Beyond the Flag article that was posted over the offseason.