After last year’s million dollar challenge the first points paying IndyCar race at The Thermal Club started with both McLaren’s on pole. The team looked to repeat the result of their Formula 1 counterparts. Full report and results below.
McLaren leads early proceedings
At the green flag it was Álex Palou with a good start, challenging Christian Lundgaard for second. Marcus Ericsson goes wide in turn 2. Callum IIott has a damaged front wing, caused by him hitting his team mate in the rear.
Christian Rasmussen passes Scott Dixon, who is one of the few drivers starting on the harder compound.
The replay shows that Devlin DeFrancesco spun around Scott McLaughlin, which results in a drive-through penalty for the Canadian driver.
Up front Pato O’Ward is creating a decent gap as Rinus VeeKay and Santino Ferrucci seem to make contact on one of the straights.
Felix Rosenqvist drops a few places, courtesy of him starting on the hard tyres. Rookie Louis Foster seems to have some degradation issues as he quickly loses a few spots, dropping out of the top 10.
Palou passes Lundgaard in lap 9, but the TV direction completely misses the action. The Dane immediately goes to the pits, going for another set of the red-walled tyre. Rosenqvist stops too, switching from hard to soft.
More people stop, but up front everything remains the same with O’Ward leading from Palou and now Colton Herta in third.
Detour for Ericsson
The nature of the pit exit gives the drivers an opportunity to have a run at those that come out of turn 1. Graham Rahal uses this to his advantage to pass an unsuspecting Scott McLaughlin.
Palou pits in lap 16, looking to undercut O’Ward, as Ericsson goes wide coming out of turn 12, half spinning and kicking up a lot of dust.
O’Ward stops the next time around, promoting Alex Rossi to the lead. The comes back ahead of team mate Lundgaard, who has undercut Palou.
The pit stop sequence is rounded up by Rossi, who pits from the lead to return in seventh.
Penske woes not over yet
McLaughlin stops after a stint of just seven laps, with what seems an issue to his hybrid system. He rejoins six laps down. Team mate Will Power demonstrates that overtaking is possible in an IndyCar at Thermal Club, passing both Nolan Siegel and Ferrucci in close succession.
Josef Newgarden and Dixon open the second round of pit stops, both switching to softs.
Lundgaard is again the first of the leaders to make the second stop, dropping to fourth. He is followed by stable mate O’Ward a few laps later, giving the lead to Palou.
The championship leader extends his stint and stops a few laps later, coming back out behind both McLarens.
In the midfield VeeKay drops back quickly, caused by a lack of grip on the rear. He eventually stops from 21st and early, to get rid of his used reds.
Palou on the rise
The last round of pit stops is opened by Lundgaard, followed by Palou a lap later. The Catalan driver comes out with brand new alternates, giving him a huge pace advantage.
He attacks the McLaren driver into turn 1, but the Dane refuses to back off and the two battle for several corners. Eventually Lundgaard has to back out, and Palou immediately sets course for O’Ward.
The Mexican driver pitted one lap after Palou, but with the help of some backmarkers the gap is quickly closed. O’Ward defends for a few laps, but eventually Palou outbrakes him into turn 7, taking over the lead with 10 laps to go.
Further back Power salvages a few points for Penske by passing Rossi, Kirkwood and Armstrong in the final few laps.
Up front Palou is inevitable and wins back-to-back IndyCar races by crossing the line first at The Thermal Club. O’Ward and Lundgaard complete the podium, but it will be a bit bittersweet after leading the race for so long.
Full results
