ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — It was a rough fresh start for two-time IndyCar champion Will Power in his first race with a new team, and same for Mick Schumacher in his series debut.
Schumacher didn't even complete a lap Sunday in the season-opening IndyCar race on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, where he could not escape a crash in the opening minutes when Sting Ray Robb and Santino Ferruci collided.
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FILE - Alex Palou celebrates after winning the IndyCar championship Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
Mick Schumacher is pictured at the IndyCar race Sunday, March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after he was involved in a crash on the first lap of the season-opening race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
Will Power watches the IndyCar race on pit lane after hitting the wall in his debut for Andretti Global on Sunday, March 1, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
Mick Schumacher is pictured at the IndyCar race Sunday, March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after he was involved in a crash on the first lap of the season-opening race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
The son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher had nowhere to go as he drove his Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing into turn 4 and had two crashed cars directly in front of him. Robb received a 30-second penalty for avoidable contact and continued the race, while Ferruci and Schumacher got a car ride to the medical center.
“That's racing,” Schumacher said after exiting the check-up.
Power, on his 45th birthday, had a short debut race for Andretti Global when he brushed the wall on the 21st lap.
“I feel really bad for the guys, the car was really good,” Power said after a difficult weekend with his new team. The Australian has not driven in the series for anyone besides Roger Penske since 2009.
Power was replaced in the Penske lineup by David Malukas, who at 24 years old made his team debut for the most storied organization in the series.
Power spent a long time on his timing stand speaking with Ron Ruzewski, the team principal at Andretti, before putting on his helmet and safety gear and walking down pit road back to his garage. Andretti crew members repaired the car and he was able to return to the race 31 laps behind the leaders.
Schumacher — and Ferruci — were not as fortunate as their days ended with Robb's aggressive, early contact.
“I saw Santino lock up and I wasn't aware that there was another guy on the inside locking up a littler deeper than what's supposed to be, and that kind of chain-reactioned the whole scenario,” Schumacher said. “Unfortunately our real target was to finish the race and get all the laps that we wanted.”
The German said his debut weekend wasn't a wash because he was still able to learn over three days on the track. Schumacher indicated he won't dwell on the results and is already mentally preparing for next Saturday's oval debut at Phoenix Raceway.
“Looking ahead. Not looking back, trying to understand what we could have done better on our end, qualifying maybe being one of them,” said Schumacher, who started 21st in the 25-car field. “Like always, when you starting in the back, things end up being quite difficult but I think I made it extra difficult.
“I think as a team, we really needed that race to not have doubts going into the next event. But, hey, we've got 16 or 17 more races to go.”
Schumacher made the move away from F1 after three seasons without a ride. He drove for Haas in F1 and became a Mercedes reserve driver after losing that seat at the end of 2022.
He hasn’t made an F1 start since 2022 and instead competed in the World Endurance Championship. It led the 26-year-old German to give North American open wheel racing a try this season.
Alex Palou, winner of the past three IndyCar championships and three of the past four, opened the season back on top of the podium and in a race-record fashion.
The Spaniard won St. Petersburg for the second consecutive year by a record 12.4948 seconds, the largest winning margin in race history.
“We’re so back, baby!” he radioed his Chip Ganassi Racing team as he crossed the finish line.
Palou won this race a year ago to open the most dominant season in decades, the first of eight victories that included the Indianapolis 500 and a third consecutive IndyCar title.
“All the other teams aren't flat-footed going into the season, they work hard to beat us,” team owner Chip Ganassi said. “We work hard to keep a gap between us and them, and it’s a challenge. You never know how hard they worked or how hard you worked. I’m pleased with what we’ve been able to accomplish in the offseason to maintain some gap here with the competition.”
The win comes two days after Ganassi and Palou said they have settled the breach of contract lawsuit Palou fought with McLaren Racing the past two-plus years.
“It's been an amazing offseason, everybody has done a tremendous job,” Palou said. “I don’t know what to say, it unbelievable today. This team keeps on improving, keeps on making new changes and they just keep raising the bar. It's pretty impressive.”
Ganassi felt it was the perfect way to open the year after last year's five-week trial in London.
“Obviously it's been an interesting offseason, on the track and off the track. It's all behind us now, we're back right where we want to be,” Ganassi said.
Scott McLaughlin started on the pole but finished second for Team Penske, while Christian Lundgaard was third for McLaren.
“Look, he's just doing a great job, he put himself in a great position,” runner-up McLaughlin said.
Lundgaard was frustrated with the result.
“Every time I am on the podium, he's always first. It's pretty annoying,” Lundgaard said.
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FILE - Alex Palou celebrates after winning the IndyCar championship Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
Mick Schumacher is pictured at the IndyCar race Sunday, March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after he was involved in a crash on the first lap of the season-opening race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
Will Power watches the IndyCar race on pit lane after hitting the wall in his debut for Andretti Global on Sunday, March 1, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
Mick Schumacher is pictured at the IndyCar race Sunday, March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after he was involved in a crash on the first lap of the season-opening race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — Two patients with hantavirus and one suspected of infection were evacuated Wednesday from a cruise ship at the center of a deadly outbreak, the U.N. health agency said. The ship departed Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board and headed to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear evacuating three patients, including the ship's British doctor, who Spain's health ministry said had been in “serious condition” but has improved. Two of the patients arrived at Amsterdam's airport Wednesday evening and were driven off in ambulances.
Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World Health Organization said. Of the eight cases recorded, five were confirmed by laboratory testing.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low.
Health officials in Europe and Africa are trying to identify people who may have had contact with people who earlier left the ship, which departed April 1 from South America for stops in Antarctica and several remote Atlantic islands.
Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said the government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing.
The Dutch foreign ministry said the three people evacuated were a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old British national and a 65-year-old German national who would be transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe. WHO said Wednesday that testing in Senegal confirmed that two of the evacuees were infected with hantavirus.
Two of the evacuees remain in "serious condition," Dutch ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said, and the third had no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a German passenger who died on the MV Hondius ship on May 2.
Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship are without symptoms and isolating in their cabins. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said, adding that the arrival “won´t represent any risk for the public."
Still, the Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, said he worried about the risk to the population and demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Authorities said passengers tested positive for the Andes virus, a species of hantavirus found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile. The virus can spread between people, though that’s rare and only through close contact, according to the WHO. The health agency has never seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.
“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” the WHO's top epidemic expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
Two Dutch infectious diseases experts were joining the ship, Van Kerkhove said. Access to clinical care is important, she said, because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more, she said.
The ship's itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.
Authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger who tested positive was being treated at a Zurich hospital. South African authorities earlier said two passengers who were transferred there tested positive. One, a British man, was in intensive care; the other collapsed and died in South Africa.
Swiss health office spokesperson Simon Ming said the patient there had left the ship during its St. Helena stop. It was not clear when or how he traveled to Switzerland and how many other countries he might have passed through.
The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, a statement by the office said.
“There is currently no risk to the Swiss public," the office said.
At St. Helena, the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife flew to South Africa, where she collapsed at the Johannesburg airport and died.
Later, a British man was evacuated at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa.
The ship's operator has not said if other people left at those or other locations.
The South African health ministry says officials have traced 42 out of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact with the two infected passengers who traveled there. The 42 tested negative for hantavirus.
But 20 people still need to be traced, including five people who may have been on flights to South Africa with some of the passengers as well as flight crew members.
Some may have now traveled overseas, the ministry said.
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires and Furtula from Amsterdam. Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, contributed to this report.
This version corrects to say the evacuated doctor is British.
An air ambulance takes off with evacuated patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship from the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An air ambulance takes off with evacuated patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship from the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
The MV Hondius cruise ship is anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear arrive to evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A night view of the MV Hondius cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
