photo: Penske Entertainment/Joe Skibinski
Christian Lundgaard made the most of his weekend at the Honda Indy Toronto, as he worked through a chaotic race to lead 54 of 85 laps and take his first career Indycar win and Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s first win since Takuma Sato won the 2020 Indianapolis 500.
Alex Palou and Colton Herta moved up from 15th and 14th place, respectively, and fought to second and third places, with Palou extending his championship lead to 117 points over Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon, who finished fourth.
Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin came in fifth and sixth, ahead of Ganassi rookie Marcus Armstrong, RLL’s Graham Rahal–who persevered from last place to finish ninth–and Felix Rosenqvist rounding out the top ten.
Rahal not only emerged from last place, but survived a major pileup at the start when Tom Blomqvist, Jack Harvey, and Ryan Hunter-Reay squeezed together at turn one and collected the rest of the rear of the field except Devlin DeFrancesco–who narrowly missed the wreck, but later retired due to brake issues–and Rahal, who hit the back of Benjamin Pedersen, but managed to keep the car running, reversed, and drove onto the escape road and rejoined the rest of the field, pitting for a front wing but otherwise continuing unscathed. Blomqbist, Harvey, Hunter-Reay, and Pedersen would all be out at the scene, while Alexander Rossi and Santino Ferrucci would go a lap down and finish 16th and 17th, respectively, and Sting Ray Robb went three laps down and ultimately finished 19th.
The first nine laps were thus run under yellow, and when the race went green Lundgaard got a great start to keep the lead, which he would not relinquish until pitting after 19 laps to switch off the alternate tires. Further back, Herta and Palou began to work forward; with the early-pitting cars in, they were fifth and seventh, sandwiching Herta’s Andretti Autosport teammate Romain Grosjean. Palou would pass Grosjean on lap 30 before the Frenchman started the pit sequences for the second group of cars.
This cycled Lundgaard back to the lead on lap 38, but things began getting complicated after Grosjean hit the wall at turn 10 and brought out a yellow on lap 42. Palou, Herta, Rosenqvist, Kyle Kirkwood, and David Malukas all came in early for fresh tires; the restart came on lap 45 and was immediately followed by another yellow, as Kirkwood got into the back of Helio Castroneves and spun him. Palou would take some light contact trying to avoid the wreck, but would continue on.
The rest of the field came into the pits except for McLaughlin, Dixon, and Rinus Veekay. The race finally resumed on lap 51 and Kirkwood, in fourth, immediately dropped down the order with a broken front wing; he would also be hit with a penalty for the contact with Castroneves, and finished 15th. Palou passed Herta, but had also broken his front wing in the incident, and Lundgaard got around Herta with his sights set up front.
The packing up of Palou, the off-strategy Veekay, and the lapped Rossi helped Lundgaard catch up, and on lap 62 he got around the championship leader. Herta nearly got around Palou the next lap, but couldn’t make it stick, and after Power got around O’Ward for fourth, the lead positions settled.
As the laps ticked down, Lundgaard managed a comfortable lead. However, behind him things were tense, as the early final pit stops resulted in a number of drivers trying to save fuel. On top of that, Palou’s nose was increasingly coming apart, and by lap 80 he was holding up a train of himself, Herta, Power, and Marcus Ericsson.
This train decoupled on the final lap, as Power and Ericsson had to come in for splashes of fuel; Palou nursed his car around to come home second, while Herta couldn’t attack, and barely had enough fuel to save the podium finish.
Nearly 12 seconds ahead, Lundgaard was in the most comfortable spot of all, for the first time in his IndyCar career.
