Alex Palou’s extraordinary run in the IndyCar series continued at Mid-Ohio yesterday as the Spaniard won his third straight race and fourth out of the last five.
The latest victory has moved the 26-year-old 110 points clear of CGR teammate Scott Dixon in the battle for the championship.
Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | James Black
It was an interesting strategy call for the driver of car 10 as they opted for primaries in the opening stint of the race versus the top 3 who were all on the alternate compound. After maintaining his P4 starting spot when the race got going, Palou took advantage of the lower deg on his tyres to overtake Kyle Kirkwood with a bold move around the outside at turn 4 on lap 19. The Andretti driver spun in the process of trying to hold position.
The top two of Herta and Rahal boxed on laps 28 and 29 respectively. This allowed Palou to have clean air out front on his in-lap. A rapid lap and a great stop by his crew allowed the Spaniard to rejoin as the race leader.
The 2021 IndyCar champion explained the thought process of starting on blacks.
“We knew that we had the pace, but we needed clean air. Obviously it’s tough at Mid-Ohio to follow cars — well, to overtake cars, I would say.
“That’s why we went for the primaries at the beginning, which we thought it was probably a bit risky, but if we were able to cross the first lap in position, we were going to be good for our strategy.
“So, yeah, made it work. We saved a little bit of fuel. Waited until the 27 [Kirkwood] struggled a little bit on tyres. We were able to pass and then just run a bit longer than Colton and Rahal to get the lead.
“Yeah, it was fun. The car was really fast obviously. It was great to be able to do everything that we planned, and all the pit stops and everything was fine.”
The biggest scare for Palou in the second part of the race was trying to pass Benjamin Pedersen. Unlike in Formula 1, blue flags do not exist for cars who are about to get lapped by the leader.
For over five laps, Palou got stuck behind the Dane and lost around 5 seconds to second place Colton Herta after building up a 9-second gap before catching the AJ Foyt Racing machine.
Despite very aggressive defending by Pedersen, Palou got the switchback on the exit of turn 4 and made the pass stick into 6 on lap 48.
He then started to gap Herta again before managing the race comfortably in the last stint.
Palou admitted post-race that it was “very frustrating” having to clear someone racing so hard when they’re towards the back of the field.
“Yeah, it’s INDYCAR. I know the rules, but at the same time it’s very frustrating when you are leading and you try to open the gap, and they don’t let you pass, but they are using the overtake, like 20, 30 seconds a lap, to try to stay up front.
“On top of that once you are side-by-side that they are so aggressive defending. Obviously it’s really frustrating when you are leading.
“I knew I had to get past also because you are using more overtake, you are using more fuel, you are using more tyres, and you’re not able to do the race you want just because of a back marker car that wants to stay on the lead lap.
“The issue is that once you pass them, they let everybody pass because they already lost the lap, right?
“So, yeah, it’s frustrating. I know it’s the rules. I would like it to change. It’s not going to change. So, yeah, whatever. I’m more relaxed now.”
This year has seen a marked improvement in Palou’s qualifying form. The Spanish driver has started inside the top 7 for all 9 rounds to date — including pole positions at the Indy 500 and the Detroit GP after not scoring a single one last year.
In fact, the last time he started outside the top 10 was for the second race at Iowa in July of last year. It means the Spaniard’s qualified inside the top 10 in his last 14 starts.
Palou believes the improvement he’s made on a Saturday has been his biggest step forward as a driver in recent times and played a huge role in his current domination of the series.
“I would say we got a lot better in qualifying than in the last two years. We’ve been able to get more speed from the car and get myself more comfortable. That helps getting, I would say, better strategies during the races.”
The Spaniard added a key to his great run has been learning from teammate and six time series champion Scott Dixon on how to consistently execute great races.
“And I would say reading the races. I’m learning a lot. I’ve been learning a lot from Scott, from the team for what I need for my races.
“So far it’s working. So hopefully we can keep on learning and keep getting some good results.”
