Stefan scored his maiden Indy Lights podium finish in his first outing for Bryan Herta Autosport around the wet streets of St Petersburg, the track on which he made his debut last season.

He started the race 14th after a crash in the qualifying session. "We made it up into the top five on old tyres," he said, "but I just tried pushing a bit too hard. I went into turn 8 and I might have had a gearbox problem because I couldn't get down the gears. I went down to second gear very late on and it just took the rear of the car out and sent me into a spin and into the wall." It was disappointing, but he was confident for the race: "I had a similar thing last year, so I am used to passing on this circuit."

There were sprinkles of rain as the race began, but all the cars started out on slick tyres. At turn 1, as cars ran four and five wide, polesitter James Hinchcliffe was punted out by Philip Major, causing a full course yellow. Stefan was already up to ninth place, while his team-mate Sebastián Saavedra was in the lead. Saavedra spun on lap 5 and the yellow flags came out again, quickly followed by red flags as the rain was getting heavier and cars were spinning on the increasingly slippery track. The race was declared wet and all the cars came into the pits to change to wet-weather tyres. By now Stefan was up to fifth place.

At the restart, with rooster tails of spray making it difficult to see, Stefan kept his distance from the cars ahead. Two of them soon spun out of contention, leaving Stefan locked in a spirited battle for second and third places with Belgian Jan Heylen, a former Champ Car World Series driver. Try as he might, though, Stefan couldn't get past. "The car was really good," he said, "but it was hard to pass because the white lines dictate the line into the corner." He came home third in the rain-shortened race behind Heylen and winner JK Vernay. His progress from 14th at the start to third at the end also earned him the Force for Earth Hard Charger Award.