Tag: Laguna Seca

Alex Palou gave major props to the Chip Ganassi Racing team for giving him the best car in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, but admits he felt his pit strategy was “risky” and that he should have done a better job in the first stint.

Palou, who took pole position using two sets of red tires in the Firestone Fast Six, lost his advantage at Turn 2, lap 1, when Kyle Kirkwood’s Andretti Autosport Honda passed him for the lead around the outside. Palou then spent the remainder of that first stint trailing Kirkwood.

Although he stayed out a lap longer than Kirkwood and delivered a strong enough in-lap to jump ahead of the Andretti driver, he came out behind Alexander Rossi, who had also stopped a lap earlier and delivered his fastest lap of the race. Having changed to a second set of primaries, he was also vulnerable to Kirkwood and his teammate Colton Herta, who were both on the softer alternates, and sure enough, they passed him through the Turn 2 and 3 sequence next time by.

To get him back to the front, the team left him out front when the first caution fell on lap 36, whereas his primary threats all pitted for a second time. Although Palou worked hard when the green flag flew, he hadn’t quite pulled a big enough lead on his fuel-saving rivals to retain the lead when he made his second stop on lap 55. However, he passed Rossi’s Arrow McLaren on lap 62, and Herta on lap 64.

Thereafter, he was troubled only by the threat of Herta on restarts.

“I did a mistake, played it too nice, lost the lead,” said the two-time and defending series champion of the start. “At the beginning of the race, I wasn’t really executing. The car was really fast but I couldn’t overtake Kyle. That kind of put us in a bad position. Yeah, I was not really happy with myself at the beginning. The team had to do a really risky strategy, too risky in my opinion.

“It worked out so I’m really happy. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck. It was not luck. Honestly, we just stayed out. We were obviously putting ourselves in danger if there was a yellow. We’re just losing all the gap we’re doing against Colton at the time.”

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Palou said that although he has faith in his strategist Barry Wanser, he did question whether they had made the right move of staying out when others pitted.

“I understand what he did,” said Palou, for whom this was an 11th IndyCar victory. “Obviously it’s not the preferred strategy. I doubted a little bit at the beginning. At the same time I knew they know a lot more the numbers. They had trust in me on going fast.

“I have a lot of faith. As a driver, you always doubt everything. Just in case it goes wrong, I can say, ‘I knew it!’ When I saw everybody coming in, ‘Are we sure this is a good one?’ If it didn’t go well, I could say, I told you. If it went well, I could say, Yeah, you did a good job!”

“I knew it was risky just in case we did, like, five laps, pull a gap. I know we were going to pull a gap. Imagine we have eight seconds ahead, then there’s a caution, we’re done. We have to make an extra pit stop to everybody. We’re going to be in the back of the queue. We’re not going to have any way to overtake 10, 15 cars. That’s why it was a bit risky…

“I think as a driver you cannot really doubt all the time what they are doing, especially with the past I’ve had with Barry and everybody calling the strategies. They’ve been calling 99.9%. Every time it’s been amazing.”

Asked how he had been able to track Kirkwood so closely in the first stint without having his tires degrade in the dirty air, Palou explained: “I think it was just because we were lucky to have a really big pace advantage this time. Normally it’s bad to be so close, but in my opinion, we were running super slow and I was not even pushing too much on the tires.

“There’s other races where, yeah, you need to leave a gap of 1.5 seconds, to leave your tires to breathe, your downforce to work. But yeah, my car was superior here, and I could stay close. It wasn’t good for the tires. At the end I was struggling, as well. But he was struggling a little bit more.”

“I was surprised that he was not pushing at the beginning. He was, like, kind of saving a bit of fuel, even before the tire deg was an issue. I knew that the best thing for us was to go as fast as possible. That’s why I was trying to overtake him, which I didn’t make happen.”

Alex Palou won the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, beating Colton Herta after a torrid 95 laps of the 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and has moved into the lead of the championship on a day when former leader Will Power finished seventh.

From pole position, Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing Honda made a strong start but Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood outbraked him and passed him around the outside into Turn 2 to grab the lead and the inside line for Turn 3. Behind Palou, Felix Rosenqvist retained third place for Meyer Shank Racing, chased by Alexander Rossi’s Arrow McLaren who had scrambled past Colton Herta’s Andretti Global Honda on the outside of Turn 3.

The big loser on the opening lap was Power who got hung out on the dusty outside through Turn 3 and fell into the dirt, dropping from to 25th. By contrast, Ganassi’s Scott Dixon jumped up from 10th to seventh behind Christian Lundgaard’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda, and ahead of Scott McLaughlin, despite the Penske No. 3 being the highest-starting car running the Firestone alternates. At the start of the second lap, Marcus Armstrong muscled Romain Grosjean aside at Turn 2 to claim ninth and immediately closed on McLaughlin.

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On lap six, Rinus VeeKay spun behind his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Christian Rasmussen and fell to the back. At this stage, Palou was still chasing Kirkwood hard, 0.8s behind him, and pulling clear of Rosenqvist, Rossi, Herta and Lundgaard. By lap 13, Palou was filling Kirkwood’s mirrors and Rosenqvist was within a second of the Ganassi machine.

Regarding pit stops, Marcus Ericsson was the first to blink, switching from primaries to alternates at the end of lap 17. Power stopped at the end of lap 18, making the same move from blacks to reds. Pato O’Ward, who had been running 12th, pitted next time by and went for fresh reds. McLaughlin changed his reds for more used reds.

By lap 22, Kirkwood was clinging onto the lead by his fingernails and his lap times were down to 1m11.0778s, while Rossi was into pitlane to change primaries for alternates, a move Rosenqvist emulated next time by. Kirkwood, Herta and Lundgaard all pitted next time by but their slower laps on worn tires meant they were beaten by Rossi. Palou’s extra lap on track was enough for him to jump Kirkwood, but not Rossi. Surprisingly, the two-time champion had taken on another set of primaries, and Kirkwood and Herta wasted little time in passing him.

Further back, the charging McLaughlin dived down the inside of Lundgaard at Turn 9, and the RLL car went off into the gravel, collecting an advertising board which folded around his right-front wing.

Rosenqvist was another who had lost time in gravel, up the hill to the Corkscrew, and now ran ninth. Josef Newgarden had lost time when he was served a drive-through penalty for an unsafe pit exit. However, although he dropped to 24th, his time loss was reduced by Luca Ghiotto shunting his Dale Coyne Racing Honda and bringing out the first yellow flag of the race.

Newgarden leapt to 11th when several drivers elected to use the caution to make their second stop, including Rossi, Kirkwood and Herta. Dixon bounced off a curb at pit entry and struck the pit wall with his right front, and McLaughlin tagged the Ganassi car’s left rear. Palou stayed out on his primaries, and O’Ward on alternates moved up to second, but was passed at Turn 2 on the lap 39 restart by Grosjean, who hung round the outside on fresh primaries and made the move stick.

David Malukas ran fourth in his first race of the year for Meyer Shank, followed by Armstrong and Ferrucci. Mid-pack, Herta’s crew had jumped him ahead of Rossi and Kirkwood. The race then went under yellow for two laps as Nolan Siegel spun and needed a bump start.

The lap 42 restart saw Palou stretch away from Grosjean, O’Ward and Malukas, clearly needing two more stops, whereas those who pitted under caution were expected to be able to make it on one.

O’Ward pitted from third at the end of lap 47, and Malukas and Pietro Fittipaldi (RLL) stopped next time by, but Fittipaldi made the same error as Newgarden, running onto the sand on the pit exit and missing the blend line, and pitted.

Palou was now soaring relative to Herta – who led the group on the other strategy – pulling 22s on him before Palou’s lap 54 stop, as Herta tried to make his fuel number. Palou didn’t get quite enough of a gap to retain the lead, but he emerged in third behind Herta and Rossi and just ahead of Kirkwood. Behind them ran McLaughlin, Dixon, Power, Grosjean, Rosenqvist and Lundgaard.

Power on alternates took Dixon on primaries down the inside at the top of the Corkscrew to claim sixth on lap 58, so he could start pursuing his teammate McLaughlin.

Nearer the front, Palou dived down the inside of Rossi at Turn 2 on lap 62 to claim second, and rapidly closed on Herta, while Power passed McLaughlin for fifth a lap later. On lap 64 Palou drafted Herta up the hill out of Turn 6 and was well ahead by the time they reached turn in for the Corkscrew. Herta had no respite, because immediately Rossi was in his mirrors.

Kirkwood and Dixon made their final stops on lap 66, and then Herta, Rossi, Power, McLaughlin, Lundgaard and Rosenqvist pitted. Palou again stayed out longer and turned his fastest lap of the race, but then got stuck behind Rasmussen for half a lap and lost 3s. At the end of lap 70, Ganassi called him to the pits where he took on primaries and emerged ahead of Herta. Grosjean, who had pitted on the same lap as Palou, didn’t have enough temperature in his tires to fend off Rossi at the top of the Corkscrew and potentially lost a podium.

The caution flags flew on lap 75, when Lundgaard went up the inside of Armstrong at Turn 4 who had just emerged from the pits and nuzzled him to the outside. The green Ganassi car spun and stalled.

IndyCar then allowed everyone to pit before throwing the caution, and off-strategy Newgarden was able to pit from the lead and emerge in second, ahead of Herta, Rossi, Grosjean and Power.

At the restart, Palou held onto the lead but there was a double hit for Penske. Newgarden ran off the track at Turn 6, allowing Herta, Rossi and Grosjean ahead, while at Turn 5, McLaughlin made a late dive on Power, bounced him wide but then spun himself as he went back to the throttle. Before he could serve his drivethrough penalty, his car was seen struggling up the hill very slowly and he had to pit. There was then a fourth caution for Jack Harvey’s Dale Coyne Racing Honda expiring on the main straight, even though Harvey backed it off the track into pitlane.

Things are getting WILD in the closing laps!

📺: #FirestoneGP on CNBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/4wR6yoV2p8

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 24, 2024

Palou held off Herta on the lap 86 restart, while Rossi and Grosjean were pursued by Newgarden, Kirkwood, Dixon, O’Ward, Power and Ferrucci. The fifth caution didn’t take long in coming – lap 87, in fact. At Turn 5, Kyffin Simpson was nudged by the Juncos Hollinger car of Agustin Canapino and it was enough to deflate the Ganassi car’s left-rear tire and send him into a spin. Broadside across the track, he was struck hard by Graham Rahal, who had earlier dodged a bullet by swerving around Armstrong’s spinning car, but this time was eliminated on the spot.

The caution, and the reduced number of green-flag laps alleviated Herta’s fuel worries. The race restarted with four laps to go, and while fairly subdued, Palou easily pulled clear of Herta, who in turn dropped Rossi. Grosjean came under pressure from Newgarden, while Kirkwood and Dixon followed. Power passed O’Ward on lap 93, and then locked sights on Dixon. However, on the penultimate lap, he was gifted another spot when Newgarden again ran wide at Turn 6, and half-spun, dropping to 19th.

Palou ran out the win by 2s over Herta, with Rossi, Grosjean and Kirkwood completing the top five. Dixon held off Power, O’Ward and Ferrucci, while Ericsson claimed 10th despite two major offs.

RESULTS

Alex Palou left his rivals breathless in the Fast Six battle to claim pole for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

He delivered a 1m07.1465s lap on his first flyer on used alternates, his lap time equating to 119.988mph around the 2.238-mile course. It’s the two-time and reigning IndyCar champion’s fifth career pole and second of the season.

His closest challenger, in fact falling only 0.0739s short, was Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, whose teammate Colton Herta was fourth. This pair was split by Felix Rosenqvist, excelling in the Meyer Shank Racing Honda, and himself only 0.1452 slower than Palou.

The sole Chevrolet representative in the first three rows is Alexander Rossi, who did just enough on his final flyer to edge the impressive Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

Scott McLaughlin will start seventh, after being knocked out of the Fast Six by a late flyer from Rossi, and because he had a slight slide exiting Turn 6. He will start alongside Romain Grosjean who was an encouraging eighth for Juncos Hollinger Racing, but was disappointed at being backed up by his rivals trying to make space for themselves on track. He was convinced he had a potential pole-winning car.

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Pato O’Ward’s rollercoaster weekend continued with a ninth place in the second McLaren, ahead of Scott Dixon, who was kicking himself for giving up a tenth or two in a couple of corners. However, given how difficult his Friday practice had been, this was a decent recovery. His young teammate Marcus Armstrong will start 11th.

The happy surprise of the session was David Malukas, making his first start of the season. He escaped Q1 and in Group 2, despite being rusty and his wrist still not fully recovered, he was only 0.5s slower than teammate Felix Rosenqvist.

Surprisingly, considering the pace they had shown in practice, Team Penske drivers Will Power and Josef Newgarden were eliminated in their respective Q1 groups, each blaming themselves for underperforming. They will line up 15th and 14th respectively, behind Agustin Canapino in the second Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy. Santino Ferrucci of AJ Foyt Racing was a respectable 17th ahead of winners such as Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson and RLL’s Graham Rahal, neither of whom could find a good balance on their alternate tires.

Nolan Siegel, the rookie starting his first race for Arrow McLaren, was the only driver to head out on the Firestone alternates from the very start of the Q1 Group 1 session, and he did well to get within a second of teammate Rossi, but he will start 23rd.

RESULTS