Honda Performance Development had a fantastic GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in ultra tricky wet weather conditions in a timed race as they kicked off their month of May with a 1-2 finish with Colton Herta taking victory in the race ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud.
Marcus Ericsson had a great race as he came home in fourth place in the No.8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and speaking following the action the Swede said:
“It was one of those days, you know? Just a crazy race. My car was really good in the wet, though. We made good progress at the beginning, then got spun around and had to replace the rear wing, and still had damage on the rear of the car for the rest of the race. The guys on the team made really good calls on strategy and then when the rain came again at the end, my car was great in the wet. It gave us another opportunity and I made some good moves. So P4 is a very good result.”
“This is the hardest race I think I’ve ever done. “Wet to dry, dry back to wet. Thank you so much for the Hoosiers for sticking around. I know you’re used to this weather, so thank you very much. Love you guys.”
Herta went on to say:
“This is awesome! That was the hardest race I think I’ve ever done. [The early change to dry weather ‘slick’ tires] sure helped us a lot, we gained a lot of positions there. And the other [strategy] calls came at just the right time, too. Wet-to-dry; back to wet, incredible. And thank you to all the fans for sticking around in this kind of weather. Love you guys.”
2 nd Simon Pageaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda
4 th Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
8 th Takuma Sato Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
9 th Christian Lundegaard -R Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
10 th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
11 th Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Honda
12 th David Malukas -R Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
13 th Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
14 th Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda
16 th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
19 th Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda
20 th Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
21 st Devlin DeFrancesco -R Andretti Autosport Honda
22 nd Jimmie Johnson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
R – Rookie
GMR Grand Prix:
“This was a great result for us. We’ve had our chances to win some of these
early-season races, but things didn’t go our way. Today, when conditions were at their most
challenging, Colton Herta and Andretti Autosport made all the right moves and scored a most
impressive victory. Simon Pagenaud and the Meyer Shank team again showed their prowess at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to complete an outstanding 1-2 result for Honda; and Marcus
Ericsson’s charge at the end – when conditions were at their worst – was inspiring. Thanks to
everyone at HPD for keeping their heads down and focusing on the job at hand this weekend,
and let’s go on to the ‘500’.”