Doing practically what I could and should do, Álex Palou already has the achievement of the Astor Cup almost within reach, the trophy presented each season to the IndyCar champion. After his victory in Portland, the Spanish pilot has dealt a considerable blow in Laguna Seca to the championship after finish second in the Monterey Grand Prix, and he’ll arrive in Long Beach with an advantage that only Pato O’Ward can realistically grab. In the race, only the absolute owner and dominator of this track could surpass him today, a Colton Herta who has achieved his second victory in his two visits to this path.
The Spanish rider started the event in fourth position, but benefited from two early eventualities to access second place. In the second lap, an error by Herta opened an overtaking attempt for her teammate. Alexander rossi, but both collided slightly and the latter came out the worst stopped when spinning on the track, causing a caution and losing a lap. Then, on the tenth turn, it was Will power who further cleared the horizon for Palou, by losing two laps in the pits with apparent engine problems.
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The rest of the event was a tug of war between the two in which Palou was the only one to endure the pull of young Herta, both enjoying a 24-second lead after the first stoppage period. Scott Dixon was escorting Palou in the first instance after a great start, but a late first stop, and a subsequent incident with a Takuma Sato in alternative strategy, relegated him from the positions of honor, finishing the day in 13th position. With this, and after a bad start by Oliver Askew exacerbated by a bad first stop, the positions behind the Spaniard went to Pato O’Ward and Marcus Ericsson, who closely followed each other for much of the event.
After the second stops, made in his case on laps 39 and 40, Palou got notably close to Herta but both found a group of lagging cars with which they were hitched almost 20 laps until the leader began to get rid of them. By the time Palou had started to do the same, he had already lost five seconds to the leader, and O’Ward had cut him half of the disadvantage. The Mexican, however, he didn’t have enough pace the whole race on hard tires, enough to prevent Graham Rahal from approaching them first, and then overtaking them at the last stop, also fitting soft tires.
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The end of the race, however, was encouraged by the spectacular load of a Romain Grosjean which was quite a show from his 13th position on the grid. The French driver, who signed two merit overtakes in the Corkscrew over Oliver Askew and a whole Scott Dixon in the first 20 laps, was already in the top 10 by then, and was the last driver to make his last stop, starting from boxes seventh with new soft. With it, he gave an overtaking clinic in Laguna Seca, beating Simon Pagenaud, Ericsson, O’Ward and Rahal in just 10 laps to reach the podium positions.
With a great pace, the former F1 smelled blood and even tried to go for Palou, but his momentum cost him a corkscrew clash with the worthy Jimmie Johnson, which completely halted its advance. Having controlled the race and the margin with his rival, especially with an insane pace on hard tires that many others suffered on, Herta partly removed the thorn from his frustrating season with the fifth victory of his career. Grosjean was more than satisfied with his third podium of the season, but the big winner was a Palou whose second place was practically the best possible scenario.
With O’Ward in final fifth position, the Spaniard’s advantage over the Mexican expands to 35 points. This makes, in Long Beach, an eleventh place is enough in any scenario to be proclaimed champion. The McLaren SP driver, meanwhile, is practically forced to win to force a very complicated scenario. Having built a difficult strategic career with a comeback of eleven places to finish seventh behind Ericsson, Josef Newgarden still has very few mathematical options to the title that depend on an early abandonment of Palou and an overwhelming triumph of his.
Askew managed to get over his problems to get an effective ninth place, between Pagenaud and Ed Jones, while Johnson posted the best result of his rookie season at IndyCar with 17th place, including some fights and overtaking on equal terms. So things, next week the final curtain will be drawn on America’s quintessential glamorous urban area, with a title at stake that Palou, now, caresses with the tips of his fingers. So far, its execution in this decisive section has been practically perfect. It only remains to complete the work.