Miami, United States (AFP) — Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing powered to victory in the opening race of the new season at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday.

Spaniard Palou, who is looking for a third straight IndyCar title, beat teammate Scott Dixon by 2.86 seconds.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who had chased Palou over the final laps faded on the penultimate lap and was overtaken by New Zealander Dixon.

For Palou, the victory, his 12th in his IndyCar career, was the perfect start to his title defence.

“Amazing job by everyone on the 10 car, they gave me everything I needed this weekend to win,” said Palou, who said he could hardly wait to get going again after last year’s success.

“It’s been 138 days and we’ve been dreaming about this every single night,” he said.

“It’s huge, I’m super happy. Honestly, we’ve been working really, really hard. This has been a place where we have struggled in the past, especially me personally, so to start the 2025 season with a win, it’s amazing,” he added.

Palou took the lead on lap 74 and while he had some trouble behind the lapped Sting Ray Robb, he was able to hold off Newgarden and then Dixon.

Dixon’s second place was particularly impressive given that he had to compete without radio communication.

“It was frustrating, we had no radio, so I was just flying blind out there, I think they were trying to call me in because in the last lap before we pitted, there was just so much traffic and we lost 2 or 3 seconds and that is where the 10 car (Palou) got us,” he said.

Newgarden, the two-time series champion, had qualified in tenth but put himself in contention with a determined run.

“We had a good car all weekend, I think we could have qualified higher than tenth. I felt like our car was certainly capable of winning,” he said.

“Just didn’t quite get there for a couple of reasons, pit cycles, obviously we needed to go longer... but it is a long season, you’ve got to go all the way,” he added.

The new season began with a stack-up that involved multiple cars colliding with Louis Foster, Nolan Siegel and Will Power crashing out.