Then It Was Four! Palou Outmatches Rahal To Win Sonsio GP
And Then It Was Four! Palou Outmatches Rahal To Win Sonsio GP
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — In a series of events that have not been seen since the mid-2000’s, Alex Palou continues to rewrite the history books. Despite a valiant effort by Graham Rahal, Palou was able to simply outmatch the rest of the field as he won the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS road course.
It marks Palou’s fourth win in the last five races, which is a feat that has not happened since Dan Wheldon did the same thing to start the 2005 IndyCar season.
“It was an amazing day,” Palu said. “Started on pole, didn’t do an amazing start. (Rahal) had a lot of pace, but we were super strong in the end.”
The win did not come as easily as it did at Barber Motorsports Park two weeks ago. In fact, for the first half of the race, it was Graham Rahal who seemed to be poised to spoil Palou’s date with history.
Rahal seized the lead once the green flag dropped on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Rahal took advantage of some slight misfortune for Palou in the opening stint. During qualifying on Friday, Palou flat-spotted a set of his softer red tires, which he would be required to use during the race. Palou opted to start the race on those tires, which affected the handling of his car.
Rahal held the lead through the second round of pit stops, on which Rahal switched to softer and faster red tires. Palou went to the harder and slower black tires. Rahal was in a position to pull away from Palou, but lapped traffic got in the way. Colton Herta, who was involved in a mishap on lap one that forced him to pit and go a lap down, unlapped himself after the second round of stops. This put him in front of Rahal and thus gave Rahal tons of dirty air to contend with.
Unable to pull away, Palou sat, watched, waited, and stalked Rahal. This was the case all the way until the last laps of the stint, which is when Palou made his move. With Rahal’s car failing him, Palou pounced and took the lead on Lap 61. Rahal would pit two laps later, a stop that was very slow and thus cost him a chance at the podium.
“Those Ganassi cars are just in a league of their own,” “I don’t know. It’s not just Alex (Palou). I didn’t do one thing wrong, neither did the guys in the pit. Those guys (Ganassi) are in a league of their own. We just aren’t in their league right now.”
All was not lost yet for the remaining drivers in the field. A stroke of hope swept over the ground when David Malukas stopped his car in the grass of the infield on Lap 70. This brought out the first caution the series has seen since Lap 1 of St. Petersburg in early March. For added perspective, this encompassed 408 racing laps that drivers had gone without bringing out a caution.
The subsequent restart saw Pato O’Ward, who cycled to the second position due to Rahal’s misfortune, challenge Palou heading into the first turn, but Palou defended with ease and thus pulled away in the final 14 laps to a 5.5-second lead and eventually the win.
“We couldn’t have started the year better or with more confidence or momentum,” Palou said. “I’m never going to get tired of repeating (these wins), especially with the cars that these guys keep giving me!”
Palou’s victory marks his third win in a row on the IMS road course. This puts him one short of Michael Schumacher’s record of four in a row in the Formula One United States Grand Prix.
Pato O’Ward was second, which is his second runner-up finish of the season. Will Power clawed forward to claim the third spot, which is his first podium of the season.
Palou has also expanded his points lead to 97 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who moved up into second in the points with an eighth-place finish.
The parameters will change completely in the coming weeks as drivers prepare for the first oval race of the season. This race, of course, is the Indianapolis 500 in two weeks. Practice will begin in earnest on Tuesday, with qualifying beginning on Saturday next week.
And Then It Was Four! Palou Outmatches Rahal To Win Sonsio GP was originally published on ronewibc.staging.go.ione.nyc