St Petersburg Indy Lights: Zach Veach claims first victory

The Andretti driver, who was one of only three non-rookies in the field, passed polesitter and fellow veteran Gabby Chaves at the first corner, and never looked back.

He crossed the line five seconds clear of Chaves, who in turn had a 16s buffer over third-placed Jack Harvey.

It was the battle for third that provided most of the race's interest. Early on the position was occupied by Matthew Brabham, who looked a threat for second during the opening laps before he clipped the wall at Turn 3 and was forced to pit with a punctured left-rear tyre.

That promoted AutoGP champion Vittorio Ghirelli onto the provisional podium, but he was never able to open a gap over the group of cars pursuing him and was eventually beaten with a great move around the outside of the last corner by Harvey.

"I went into the corner on the high side and there's not much grip put there to be honest," Harvey said. "I was just hoping he'd give me enough room, and to be fair, he did."

Ghirelli had a bigger scare a few seconds later when Alex Baron clipped his rear, although Baron was the only one to sustain any damage; the Belardi driver retiring with a broken front wing.

The race's only interruption came right at the start, when Scott Anderson crashed heavily at Turn 3 on the opening lap and prompted a five-lap spell under caution while the mess was swept up.

Results - 39 laps:

Pos  Driver             Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Zach Veach         Andretti   50m16.8989s
 2.  Gabby Chaves       Belardi       +5.4610s
 3.  Jack Harvey        Schmidt      +21.4809s
 4.  Vittorio Ghirelli  Moore        +35.8865s
 5.  Luiz Razia         Schmidt      +36.1328s
 6.  Juan Piedrahita    Schmidt      +37.3858s
 7.  Juan Pablo Garcia  Schmidt      +38.2814s
 8.  Zack Meyer         Moore        +44.5079s
 9.  Matthew Brabham    Andretti        +1 lap

Retirements:

     Alex Baron         Belardi        25 laps
     Lloyd Read         Herta          15 laps
     Scott Anderson     Fan Force       0 laps