IndyCar at St. Petersburg in 2018: Robert Wickens dominates first career race

By Asher Fair | Mar 7, 2019

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 08: Robert Wickens, driver of the #6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) /

Last year’s IndyCar season opener was dominated by rookie Robert Wickens, who will not compete in the sport in 2019 due to injuries he suffered in a crash late last season.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Robert Wickens had never competed in an IndyCar race prior to Sunday, March 11, 2018, the date on which the 2018 season opener, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, took place.

The day before that, Wickens secured the pole position for this race on the 14-turn. 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on his final lap of the final qualifying session, the Firestone Fast Six.

Rookies took three of the first four positions on the starting grid, with Wickens taking the pole position in his #6 Honda, veteran Will Power alongside of him in second place in his #12 Team Penske Chevrolet, A.J. Foyt Enterprises rookie Matheus Leist in third behind them in his #4 Chevrolet and Ed Carpenter Racing rookie Jordan King alongside him in fourth in his #20 Chevrolet.

But while Power spun out in the second turn on the first lap of the 110-lap race, Leist ended up crashing on lap 28 after being mired 11 laps off the lead lap as a result of the fact that his car experienced mechanical issues, and King was mired three laps off the lead lap as a result of the fact that his car experienced mechanical issues of its own, Wickens remained the race’s dominant force in only the first start of his IndyCar career.

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Wickens led 69 of the race’s first 108 laps, and his laps led total was only this low primarily due to the fact that Dale Coyne Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais went on an alternate pit strategy, similar to the one that he utilized in the 2017 race at the track to win it after starting in 21st (last) place, to lead 28 of 39 laps that Wickens did not lead.

But on the race’s final restart on lap 109, Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi attempted to pass Wickens for the lead, and the cars of the two drivers made contact, sending Wickens’s #6 Honda spinning into the barrier and ending his race.

Here is a video of this incident.

Meanwhile, Bourdais, who restarted the race in third place in his #18 Honda, got around Rossi in his #27 Honda, as did Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in his #15 Honda.

The caution flag flew, and the race ended under caution with Bourdais as the winner, Rahal as the runner-up and Rossi as the third place finisher. Wickens was officially scored in 18th place with 69 laps led while Bourdais won the race having led 30 of its laps.

The 2018 season ended prematurely for the 29-year-old Canadian, as he was involved in a crash during the August race at Pocono Raceway, which was the 14th race of the 17-race season, that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Throughout the season’s first 14 races, Wickens recorded four podium finishes, seven top five finishes and 10 top 10 finishes. He recorded career-high finishes of second place in the races at ISM Raceway and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

When he was injured, Wickens was sitting in sixth in the championship standings, and he was within striking distance of the top three. While he missed the season’s final three races, including the double points-paying season finale at Sonoma Raceway, he still ended up finishing the season in a 10th place tie in the standings, and he won the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award as a result of it.

While he has been recovering from the injuries that he suffered in this crash and has even begun to walk again, there is no clear timetable in terms of when (or if) Wickens will return to IndyCar.

Wickens is set to sit out at least the entire 2019 season, and Marcus Ericsson is set to effectively serve as his replacement at Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports as James Hinchcliffe’s teammate, although the former Formula 1 driver is set to drive the #7 Honda as opposed to the #6 Honda.

But as the sport’s drivers take to the streets of St. Petersburg this weekend to open up the 2019 season, don’t forget about the rookie who absolutely schooled his competition at the track to open up the 2018 season in what was only his first career IndyCar race.

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Will any of the drivers in IndyCar‘s rookie class of 2019, including Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Marcus Ericsson, Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, Harding Steinbrenner Racing’s Colton Herta and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, be as dominant as Robert Wickens was in the 2018 season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg in this year’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg?

This race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 10, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network at 1:00 p.m. ET, so be sure not to miss it.