WordPress sticky post not showing - wordpress

Question

In my Index.php template file I have the following code which should show a featured post if it's sticky and then loop through the remaining posts below. However on the second loop shows anything and the sticky post does not appear...
The post has definitely been made sticky and second loop has successfully hidden it but the first loop just doesn't acknowledge it :/ it's not set to private and is marked as published.
Can anyone see any issues with the code? Thanks
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div class="clearfix">
<?php if(is_home()) { //if home then show the featured post and others ?>
<div class="main-column">
<?php
$sticky = get_option( 'sticky_posts' );
$sticky_query = new WP_Query( 'p=' . $sticky[0] );
// The Loop
while ( $sticky_query->have_posts() ) : $sticky_query->the_post(); ?>
<div class="featured">
<article class="clearfix">
<h2><?php echo $post->post_title ?></h2>
<p class="who-when">by <?php echo get_the_author_meta('first_name'); ?> <?php echo get_the_author_meta('last_name') ?> on <?php echo get_the_date() ?> </p>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { // check if the post has a Post Thumbnail assigned to it.
echo '<a href="'.get_permalink().'">';
the_post_thumbnail();
echo '</a>';
} else {
echo '<img src="'. get_bloginfo('template_directory') .'/images/thumb-placeholder.png" alt="Blog thumbnail" />';
}?>
<p><?php the_excerpt_max_charlength(300) ?></p>
</article>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<div class="articles">
<?php $query = new WP_Query( array( 'post__not_in' => get_option( 'sticky_posts' ), 'posts_per_page' => 10 ) );
$count = 0;
while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post();
$count++; ?>
<div <?php if($count % 2 == 0) echo 'class="no-margin"' ?>>
<article>
<h2><?php echo $post->post_title ?></h2>
<p class="who-when">by <?php echo get_the_author_meta('first_name'); ?> <?php echo get_the_author_meta('last_name') ?> on <?php echo get_the_date() ?> </p>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { // check if the post has a Post Thumbnail assigned to it.
echo '<a href="'.get_permalink().'">';
the_post_thumbnail();
echo '</a>';
} else {
echo '<img src="'. get_bloginfo('template_directory') .'/images/thumb-placeholder.png" alt="Blog thumbnail" />';
}?>
<p><?php the_excerpt_max_charlength(150) ?></p>
</article>
</div>
<?php if($count % 2 == 0) echo '<hr/>' ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div>
<?php }else if(is_search() || is_category || is_tag()){ //if other than home (search, tag, category) then show normal list (no featured style) ?>
<div class="main-column search">
<?php
$count = 0;
if(is_search()){
echo '<h1>Search Results</h1>';
} elseif(is_author()){ ?>
<?php $curauth = (isset($_GET['author_name'])) ? get_user_by('slug', $author_name) : get_userdata(intval($author)); ?>
<h1><?php echo $curauth->user_firstname; ?> <?php echo $curauth->user_lastname; ?></h1>
<div class="archive-meta">
<p><?php echo $curauth->user_description; ?></p>
</div>
<?php } else if(is_category()){ ?>
<h1><?php single_cat_title( '', true ); ?></h1>
<?php
$category_description = category_description();
if ( ! empty( $category_description ) )
echo '<div class="archive-meta">' . $category_description . '</div>';
?>
<?php }else if (is_tag()){
echo '<h1>'.the_tag().'</h1>';
}
if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
$count++; ?>
<div>
<article>
<h2><?php echo $post->post_title ?></h2>
<p class="who-when">by <?php echo get_the_author_meta('first_name'); ?> <?php echo get_the_author_meta('last_name') ?> on <?php echo get_the_date() ?> </p>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { // check if the post has a Post Thumbnail assigned to it.
echo '<a href="'.get_permalink().'">';
the_post_thumbnail();
echo '</a>';
} else {
echo '<img src="'. get_bloginfo('template_directory') .'/images/thumb-placeholder.png" alt="Blog thumbnail" />';
}?>
<p><?php the_excerpt_max_charlength(300) ?></p>
</article>
</div>
<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<p>Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.</p>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 1

Changing the code to:
$sticky_query = new WP_Query( 'p=' . $sticky[1] );
fixes the problem but I don't know why???