IMS GP: Power wins ahead of Grosjean

Will Power (Penske) won the first success of his season, ahead of Romain Grosjean, 2nd by only a second and 1/10th, but which could not really worry the Australian.

Short of push to pass, the Frenchman from Dale Coyne Racing was notably unable to attack the Penske driver on the last restart, on the 79th of 85 laps.

“In fact, I had to use a lot of push to pass to get rid of latecomers,” he explained, “and on the last restart I tried my luck but I am happy with this 2nd place.”

The fastest, Power achieved a logical success, the 40th of his career, after which he had been chasing for too long. “Finally, finally” he said when he saw the checkerboards.

The Australian got the better of pole sitter Pato O'Ward (McLaren SP) on the 18th lap, following the first sequence of pit stops.

He then took off, before coming up against the latecomer, James Hinchcliffe (Andretti), who was running a team race for the benefit of Colton Herta.

The gap then closed, but the Californian, on worn tires, was unable to threaten the Australian.

During the restart of the 71st lap, Herta was even passed by Romain Grosjean, who matched his performance from May, with a new 2nd place on the road to Indianapolis.

“We would have really liked to be first, but I'm really happy with the car and we're scoring big points,” commented the man who will make his oval debut next week at Gateway.

The other French people were less successful. Despite spending a large part of the race in the top10, simon pagenaud (Penske) finished 16th, one position ahead of Sébastien Bourdais (AJ Foyt).

In the fight for the championship, the verdict of this round could be dear.

He paradoxically favored pole sitter Pato O' Ward, 5th at the checkered and author of a disappointing race, but who benefited from the retirement of Alex Palou (Ganassi), on the 69th lap.

Starting 6th, the general leader had then turned things around and was in 4th place, ahead of the Mexican, when smoke came from his car.

Palou, who was 42 points ahead of his runner-up Scott Dixon (17th in the race), now only trails O'Ward, who took 2nd place overall, by 21 points.

Find the analysis of the IMS Big Machine GP in issue 2324 of AUTOhebdo, on sale Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.