Power Holds Off Grosjean For First Win Of 2021
Grid Talk Reporter 20:09 14/08/2021
Will Power scored his first and Team Penske’s second IndyCar race win of the year on the Indianapolis road course, holding off a charging Romain Grosjean who just fell short in the closing stages.
Polesitter Pato O’Ward went long in the first stint but bailed out as he didn’t appear to have the pace on the soft tyres he started on.He was subsequently jumped by Power in the first round of stops and continued to fall back in the following pitstops. Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta - last week’s standout until he crashed in Nashville - and May Indianapolis road course polesitter Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing also jumped O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP car in the second stops but Power looked unassailable with a lead over nine seconds.
However, he became livid as he accused backmarker James Hinchcliffe, last in the race, of holding him up on track and backing him up into team-mate Herta. The lead gap fell from over nine seconds to just over four before the final pitstops, where Power made a mistake and stalled briefly exiting his pitstall - coming out behind Hinchcliffe again. The race changed when points leader Álex Palou - who had worked his way past O’Ward and looked a podium threat - stopped with what appeared to be an engine problem, erasing the championship lead he was set to increase to 50. He has already twice taken grid penalties for unapproved engine changes this year.
On the restart and with Hinchcliffe out of the way, Power escaped, but behind him Grosjean dived past Herta for second even though he had no push to pass left. A clash between Scott McLaughlin and Rinus VeeKay caused a yellow that erased the gap again with the race resuming with five laps to go giving Grosjean and Herta another chance at Power. However, Power, who thanked his crew and said he had “not been putting it together” until now, coped with just about everything in a turbulent race and finally delivered a 2021 win. He’s the ninth different winner of the year and it’s his fifth win on the IMS road course. Grosjean held on for a brilliant result ahead of his oval debut next week at Gateway, while Herta got the rebound he needed from his Nashville crash with a return to the podium. Alexander Rossi jumped O’Ward in the last round of stops and despite an aggressive fight with the Arrow McLaren SP driver, Rossi took fourth ahead of the polesitter.
Behind, diverging strategies from as early as lap 10 of 85 mixed up the field, but it was the gambler Jack Harvey for Meyer Shank Racing who scored another top 10 at what is his best track, finishing sixth ahead of 16th-place starter Graham Rahal. Josef Newgarden came from 20th to take eighth in an epic recovery drive for Team Penske in which he was twice bumped off the track but went long on his stints to vault many of his rivals. He made contact with Takuma Sato with three laps to go at Turn 1 and may be assessed for a penalty because of it. Nashville winner Marcus Ericsson took ninth as the best Ganassi driver having started in 11th, with Sato bounced down to 10th after that late incident with Newgarden in which Ericsson also snuck past.
Outside the top 10, star rookie Christian Lundgaard turned a fourth-place start into 12th with a strategy of going long early which didn’t work, and he really struggled on the harder black tyres during that stint. Nevertheless it was a strong debut where his best lap time was competitive. Six time champion Scott Dixon had been 13th in the closing stages but fell back to 17th, after a hard fought race bouncing back from a qualifying spin and on a day he could have made some points back on Palou ahead of him. Palou’s points lead fell by 21 points because of his retirement, with O’Ward now 21 points behind as he jumped Dixon during this race. Dixon is now 34 off Palou, with five races remaining. Jimmie Johnson had his best performance of the year at the track he has driven most in an IndyCar, scoring 19th.In a race where nothing went his way, May race winner VeeKay finished 24th.
2021 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix Classification (USA unless stated) (85 Laps)
1st. Will Power (AUS)
2nd. Romain Grosjean (FRA)
3rd. Colton Herta
4th. Alexander Rossi
5th. Patricio O'Ward (MEX)
6th. Jack Harvey (GBR)
7th. Graham Rahal
8th. Josef Newgarden
9th. Marcus Ericsson (SWE)
10th. Takuma Sato (JPN)
11th. Conor Daly
12th. Christian Lundgaard (DEN)
13th. Felix Rosenqvist (SWE)
14th. Ed Jones (UAE)
15th. Sébastian Bourdais (SUI)
16th. Simon Pagenaud (FRA)
17th. Scott Dixon (NZ)
18th. Ryan Hunter-Reay
19th. Jimmie Johnson
20th. Max Chilton (GBR)
21st. Helio Castroneves (BRA)
22nd. James Hinchcliffe (CAN)
23rd. Scott McLaughlin (NZ)
24th. Rinus VeeKay (NED)
25th. Cody Ware
26th. Dalton Kellett (CAN)
DNF: Álex Palou (ESP)
DNF: R.C. Enerson
