#indygp

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[meaningofmotorsport]

Big Machine Indy Grand Prix Review

It was a race all about strategy at IMS yesterday, although we did get our fair share of overtakes, but the disparity between the red and black tyres played a heavy part in the outcome of the race!

Who else could it be winning at the Indy Road Course than Will Power! When he got that front row start, he was clearly going to be a major threat for the win. As it was, taking the black tyres first, he held on well to O’Ward, before then closing and passing him, when they swapped compounds! Hinchcliffe did all he could to disrupt Will’s race, yet he was actually saved by a caution, which he handled as you would expect a 40 time winner to, as he ended a year long drought without a win! This is the Power we haven’t really seen much this year, he was there briefly at Detroit, until he was screwed out of the win, and hopefully he can build on this moving forwards!

It is not surprising, that when we return to this European style track, Grosjean is once again starring right at the front, almost having another shot at the win! He fell back early on in the race, and fought back admirably on those last restarts, as Herta struggled with older tyres. Going to Gateway, don’t expect much from Romain, as although he is a fast learner, the leap he is making is enormous! Herta said himself it was the maximum he could do today; you could see him sliding around in the latter part of stints as the tyres went away! This result will be the best medicine after what happened in Nashville.

Starting 10th, Rossi was rather limited in how far he could progress up the field. He was stuck behind drivers like Harvey for large portions of the race, as it isn’t actually that easy to pass here. I don’t think he had much for those in front anyway, possibly just Colton. Pato was magnanimous in the fact that despite getting the pole, 5th was where he deserved to finish today, as his car went away dramatically on old tyres. He is rather lucky that certain other title contenders had harder days than him, as he brings the gap down to 21 points!

Harvey didn’t really do much in the race, instead he just stayed in a solid top 10 spot, as he shops around for next year. Rahal was a major gainer today, using strategy to fire himself up the order. I thought that they were having a really difficult year, however Rahal is sat in 6th in the championship right now, so seemingly his consistency is really working wonders for him!

This could end up being a crucial day in the championship for Newgarden, as he overcame the poor qualifying and grid penalty, to be the biggest mover in the race, getting up to 8th. His pace didn’t look stellar to begin with, but it seems that going long in every stint was what got him into clear air, where he could set a better pace, to move around cars. He did make a risky move on Sato with a few laps to go, which was unnecessary, as it could so easily have gone wrong! Some of these tracks coming up could help him to close down on Palou!

The results suggest that it was a poor race for Lundgaard, yet I think it was more that he overachieved in qualifying, as one lap pace translates better between series than race pace! When you think that 12th is about where you would expect Ferrucci to finish, it shows how well he has done over the weekend, and although F1 is the main aim, if that doesn’t work out, he feasibly could end up here!

That error in qualifying for Dixon was hugely costly, as he couldn’t make any progress in the race, because everyone in front of him was just covering his every move! Then, having saved his blacks till last, the caution meant he was easy pickings for those on reds, which capped off his weekend! On the other hand, two cars who were impressive this weekend, were the 48 of Johnson, and the Top Gun Racing car too. For most of the year, Jimmie has found it hard to get anywhere near his competitors, but having been to this track before, the improvements were clear to see, as he pretty much stayed with the back of the pack, and on reds at the end, was able to climb up through the field! Similar really for Top Gun, as on their first road course race, they were very close on pace to the pack, and could have been battling all race with other cars if it hadn’t of been for an unknown electrical issue.

Finally, engines seem to be the one issue for Palou this season, I don’t know if he abuses them too much, or if it is just luck, but this has brought a few drivers right back into the fight for the title! Otherwise, he drove well in the race, and could have got on the podium potentially at the end. If Alex can keep as consistent as he has been all year, it is going to be hard for him to be overhauled, yet as we go to 3 new tracks for him, to end the season, anything can happen!

Next up we head to the final oval of the year, where hopefully we will get better racing than we saw last year. Going back to a night race should fix most of those issues, as this tight track can really throw up some good racing!

-M

Thank you very much for reading this article! To keep up to date with when they go out, and to see my reactions to races and other news, follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/MeaningofMotor1

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