The Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course takes place today, and there are many storylines we are following. Will anyone be able to stop Alex Palou? The Spaniard claimed his second successive NTT P1 Award and takes a 61-point lead in the championship into today’s race. Watch out for a resurgent Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Team. Graham Rahal starts the race from the front row alongside Alex Palou.
Louis Foster had a great qualifying on Friday. He starts the race from third place, his career-best start. Devlin DeFrancesco starts the race from fifth place. It is a remarkable comeback for the team, and they will be hoping that their qualifying pace translates to the race.
What can Team Penske do? Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 Sonsio Team Penske Chevrolet starts the race from fourth place while Josef Newgarden and Will Power start the race from sixth and seventh place, respectively. Speaking following qualifying Scott McLaughlin said:
“The reds really perked the car up so that makes me a little worried on the black tire. But, you know, really, really proud of Benny (Bretzman) and the guys. I was complaining a fair bit in practice, and they tuned it up for me and got it going. And to make the Fast Six, not that I didn’t expect. I always expected, but it was nice to do it. And then obviously, this weekend, there’s a new tire, of rules, new allocations. How are you going to then head into the race still with so many unknowns, you just got to treat it every race the same. Just go in there and just hope that you choose the right strategy at the end of the day. You know, as a driver, the best thing I can do is just Execute and hit by marks saying these guys will do the same, and what will come will come.”
What can Alexander Rossi do from ninth on the grid? Speaking following qualifying the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner said:
“We had a generally okay day, but just missed out on a little bit in round two of qualifying. The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet is a good car, so I know that we can go forward from 9th.”
Can Scott Dixon do Scott Dixon things and come from 16th on the grid to claim a podium or better? The Iceman showed last weekend in Barber that he is the master of creating a good result from a tough qualifying, and that is one of the reasons he is a six-time series champion and does not crack under pressure.
What can we say about Andretti Global? They will have to dig deep for a strong result today with Colton Herta in the No.26 Gainbridge Honda starting the race from mid pack in 13th place and speaking following qualifying on Friday he said:
It’s a weird thing this weekend because I’ve been generally happy with the car, but we’ve just been slow. I think it’s just a lack of overall grip, and however the mechanical grip is working, it just isn’t giving us the ultimate grip that we need. We’re finding a nice balance in our race car, which is obviously nice for the race, but we still need that ultimate grip that we’re missing. We’ve kind of been chasing our tails all weekend, and it’s really disappointing that none of us made it out of that first round. We still get to race tomorrow, so we’ll go from there
Kyle Kirkwood said qualifying was not ideal as he starts the race from 21st place. Speaking following the session the Long Beach winner said:
“Qualifying was not ideal for us. We qualified 21st and Colton qualified 13th but was only three-hundredths of a second quicker, so it’s really that close of margins. It always is. We just didn’t really put together a great lap. One tiny mistake turns into a giant mess when you’re qualifying around Indy. It’s a little disappointing, but this place is notorious for racing pretty well, so we’ll just shift our focus to the race and be ready to go tomorrow.”
It was interesting to see if they could move forward for this afternoon’s race. Marcus Ericsson will be looking to move forward today as he starts the race from 20th place and speaking following the action he said:
“Today was a very disappointing result. We’re just struggling for speed so far today. It’s disappointing as a group, and we need to do better than that. I think the No. 28 Fresh Connect Central crew has done a great job optimizing the car and trying to improve it, so it’s not for lack of effort. We’ve got some analyzing to do tonight to be better tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see what Meyer Shank Racing can do with Felix Rosenqvist starting 12th while Marcus Armstrong starts the race from 15th place. Speaking following qualifying, Rosenqvist said:
“Seems like we found a little bit of pace from practice and had a pretty good Q1. Q2 got a little bit awkward and I had someone slow down in front of me, so I had to either finish that lap – which was kind of average – or go for another. When I went for another one I messed up in Turn 7 and locked up. Kind of bummed I didn’t get a lap together so we’re P12; I thought we were a bit quicker than that. But we have a pretty decent squad for tomorrow.”
Marcus Armstrong says:
It’s a shame to be so close to the top six [in Group 1] and not advance. The positive side is that we definitely have a better race car than what we showed in qualifying. So, we’ll see what happens tomorrow. We’re in a position to move forward in the race.”
There is plenty to look out for today, but one thing is sure: we are in for an exciting and action-packed race. The other question we have is, will we see another caution-free race? All these questions will be answered later on today.