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Ericsson wins his first IndyCar race, Veekay on the podium again
- GPblog.com
Marcus Ericsson has won his first IndyCar race in Detroit. The Swede was fortunate that the race leader dropped out, allowing him to simply drive to victory. Dutchman Rinus van Kalmthout also took a podium spot, after overtaking in the closing stages of the race, where a major crash halted the action for a long time.
Remarkable in the opening phase of the race were the early pit stops for the drivers who started on the red tyre. Some of the drivers, including frontrunner Patricio O'Ward, already changed tires in the fourth of the seventy laps.
Big crash stops the race
As the race progressed, Dixon took over the lead in the race. At the time of lap 24, he had an advantage of nearly 12 seconds over the number two, Hinchcliffe. Quickly following, however, was the big crash of Arrow McLaren driver Felix Rosenqvist. In the corner just before the straight, the driver's accelerator seemed to get stuck, causing the car to slam into the tire pile and cement blocks at full throttle.
The incident was followed by a red flag that halted the race in Detroit for the moment. The cement blocks behind the tire pile were damaged so significantly that they too had to be replaced, something that caused the session to be suspended for a longer period of time.
Veekay awake at the restart
After a long break, the drivers went back out on track, where one after the other managed to overtake. Van Kalmthout also immediately gained places on Pagenaud and Sato. This allowed the Dutchman to move up to third place, behind Will Power and Marcus Ericsson.
This order would remain until just before the second red flag. Sato had just passed Van Kalmthout when the red flag halted the race again. This time it was Romain Grosjean who parked his car in the wall. Luckily for him, the damage was not serious and the drivers were able to continue after a short break.
Race leader gets engine problems
At the moment of exiting the pits, things went wrong for Power. His car would not start anymore so it was not Power, but Ericsson who was on pole position for the last few laps. Behind Ericsson, Veekay was also awake and he overtook Sato immediately.
He couldn't really attack Ericsson anymore and Veekay crossed the line in second place. For Ericsson his first victory in the IndyCar and for Veekay again a podium, after his victory during the Indy GP. On Sunday the drivers will race again on the same circuit where all chances are equal for everyone.