23 years after Kenny Bräck’s victory, the Indianapolis 500 once again raises a Swedish driver to Olympus. From fifth position on the grid, Marcus Ericsson capped Chip Ganassi Racing’s extraordinary month with a historic win, after beating Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, the two McLaren SP stars, in the final laps. The former Formula 1 driver knew how to respond when the two main strengths of his team suffered different misfortunes in the pits that kept them from a possible one, ending Scott Dixon in 21st position and Álex Palou in ninth place that tastes like a lot and a little at the same time.
The start of the race provided a super compact but clean start. Having the first two places in his possession, Ganassi had a clear starting plan to control the race. Thus, Palou passed Dixon on the backstretch of the first lap, and the two proceeded to switch positions several times during the first stint with Rinus VeeKay at his side. Behind, Ericsson gained fourth place over Ed Carpenter, and Will Power went from gaining four places to gradually losing them. The first eight managed to open a gap with the restbeing the pursuers led by a Santino Ferrucci who had advanced from 15th place.
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The first round of stops came with Palou in second position, but the Spanish driver managed to get ahead of Dixon by extending his stoppage one more lap. VeeKay put herself in the middle of both, but her career would soon go to waste. with an accident on lap 39, when he lost control of the car in turn 2. This incident left Ganassi controlling the first three positions over Pato O’Ward, who overtook Ed Carpenter just before the yellow, and the Mexican overtook to Ericsson shortly after a start in which Takuma Sato shone by overtaking three cars from the outside.
As soon as the second stoppage period started, the race sank completely for Palou on lap 70, when Callum Ilott’s accident caught the Spaniard just seconds after entering a closed pit lane. To complete his misfortune, Palou was running out of gas and had to make an emergency stop (slight refueling) before being able to make a complete stop and complete the Drive Through. In total, four pit stops that relegated him to 30th position. The great beneficiary of all this was Conor Daly, the only other top 15 driver alongside Dixon to stop before yellow, and which went from 14th to second place. The American didn’t miss an opportunity to lead a few laps afterwards, swapping positions with Dixon.
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Once again, the start of the third stopping period coincided with another accident at turn 2, in this case involving a Romain Grosjean who was rolling on the edge of the top 10. Daly had been the only one on the lead lap to stop earlier, and moved into the lead again. In the mass stops, Ferrucci fell behind Dixon and O’Ward, while Ericsson dropped several places to eighth and a recovered Josef Newgarden sank out of the top 10 when stalling. The start of lap 112 led to a great attack by O’Ward to overtake the two leaders, which Ferrucci almost managed to reply. Dixon responded by regaining the lead soon after, while Daly and Rosenqvist settled in as threats.
Between stints, the race was very static, gripped by the temperatures and the southeast wind that had already wreaked havoc. During this time, Scott Dixon reached 645 laps led in the Indy 500, beating Al Unser’s all-time record. Fourth stops saw McLaren SP make better use of his late stops to get Rosenqvist briefly ahead of Dixon and O’Ward to do so permanently. Again another yellow arrived, although this one after the stops, when Scott McLaughlin suffered a heavy double impact at turns 3 and 4. In this period, Sato, Newgarden and Jimmie Johnson were three of the six drivers who chose to stop and risk the appearance of more yellows.
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The frantic start, with 42 laps to go, returned Dixon to the lead as others battled it out: Palou was already looming for the top 15 and was up to twelfth on the restart. Only about 15-20 laps elapsed until the last stops began, and in them there was the ultimate twist: Dixon overbraked on pit entry and exceeded the speed limit, which condemned him to fulfill a Drive Through and lose any chance of victory. Rosenqvist stopped six laps before O’Ward and took advantage of it to get ahead, but from behind appeared a flashing Ericssonfifth before the stops, to beat them both.
Ganassi’s pilot then used the bends very cleverly, and when O’Ward got to second place, he was three seconds behind. Everything seemed sold in favor of the Swede, but Ganassi herself stole herself with Jimmie Johnson’s crash just six laps from the end of Turn 2. As a result, she went out a red flag to protect a finish without a safety car. With just two laps to go, the biggest highlight of the year was an Ericsson change-of-direction fest. O’Ward launched his last offensive with an outside at the beginning of the last lap, but could not consolidate it.
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It was the day of Marcus Ericsson, who has revalidated a path full of difficulties and ups and downs with a redemptive triumph like few others in his fourth season of IndyCar, and which also places him as championship leader thanks to the double points and the disaster of all the leading drivers. O’Ward’s bitter second place is partly offset by the good sum of points, and Rosenqvist’s fourth for his first big oval result, although he lost the final podium in favor of a great Tony Kanaanbenefited from considerably delaying his last stop after running all day in the top 10, in what is his only race of the year.
With good comebacks from the second half of the grid, alexander rossi he reached the top 5, with both Hélio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud placing both of Shank’s cars in the top eight. In between, a Conor Daly whose sixth place left him wanting more. Álex Palou, with 42 led laps under his belt, finished a difficult day in ninth positionafter losing (Castroneves) and winning (Ferrucci) a place in the final start, and leaves Indianapolis with the same handicap of 14 points compared to the leader with which he started the event last week. Much better than a dilapidated Dixon who finished the day outside the top 20 and brooding over his umpteenth misfortune. The second victory will have to keep waiting.
FULL INDY 500 RESULTS
(Table under development)
Photos: IndyCar Media