May is underway at the Indianapolis Freeway. NTT IndyCar series ran today on the road at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the GMR Grand Prix. The race start time was brought forward to avoid a thunderstorm, but it was then delayed back to the original time due to a lightning strike. The threat of rain in general is the focus of the race.
Penske’s will starts at the column but loses the lead at the bottom of Hulman Avenue back on the first lap. Power is three wide with his teammates Josef Newgarden and Álex Palou of Ganassi. This allowed Palou to take the lead. And as Power pushed Newgarden off the track, McLaren’s Pato O’Ward moved up to a spectacular second place. It wasn’t long until McLaren took a 1-2 lead, but the track surface wasn’t stay wet for a long time.
As track conditions improved, Andretti’s Colton Herta was the first racer to use tires in dry weather. Herta’s pace immediately proved to the rest of the field that they should stop too. Herta was able to get past McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist and past Pato O’Ward after getting past Round 8.
Things will start to get really out of hand for Lap 42 of 85 when the rain finally hits. O’Ward managed to get past Herta into the first corner on the reboot, and they made contact. Pato turned straight into the path of Rosenqvist, damaging a teammate’s front wing. There’s a seemingly never-ending warning when the driver loses control in dynamic conditions. And, at a just, Penske’s Scott McLaughlin took the lead in an off-pit race and then turned just before starting again.
Colton Herta won the GMR Grand Prix after the last caution was thrown with less than two minutes remaining. Juan Pablo Montoya put his McLaren against the wall and destroyed the left side of his car. It’s really frustrating to see the race constantly stop because the teams actively choose the wrong tires to maintain track position and hope the weather changes in their favor.
Race results – Top 10
- Colton Herta
- Simon Pagenaud
- Spirit
- Marcus Ericsson
- Conor Daly
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Takuma Sato
- Callum Illot
- Christian Lundgaard
- Scott Dixon
IndyCar is returning next weekend with the Time Trails for the 106th Indianapolis 500 Run.
