The Mexican rider had a bad day at the Portland GP and is second in the championship, 25 points behind Spaniard Alex Palou, who won the race
The Spanish pilot Alex Palou beat the Portland Grand Prix this Sunday, and regained the lead in the NTT standings IndyCar Series after getting his third win of the season.
The victory allowed Palou, who runs with the Chip Ganassi Racing team, to beat the Mexican Duck O’Ward at the top of the championship standings with two remaining races, those of Laguna Seca and Long Beach, to conclude the IndyCar 2021 season.
Palou, Who had won his first pole position of the season, in the classification of the Six Fastest, on Saturday, and which gave him another extra point, overtook in the final straight the American Alexander Rossi, who went finished 1.2895 seconds behind the Spanish driver.
Veteran New Zealand driver Scott Dixon, Englishman Jack Harvey and American Josef Newgarden took third, fourth and fifth place, respectively, which also cost them losing ground with Palou in the fight for the lead.
But the one who suffered the most loss was O’Ward, of the Arrow McLaren SP team, who finished in fourteenth place and is now 25 points behind in second place with 452, for Palou’s 477, while Newgarden is third at 34 points (443).
Duck finishes P14 at #PortlandGP
In the next, team. pic.twitter.com/TfukqAWLYD
– Arrow McLaren SP (@ArrowMcLarenSP) September 12, 2021
As is tradition for Palou, Second year in the competition IndyCar, First with Chip Ganassi Racing, every time he gets a victory his celebration is fried chicken dinner.
“We kept our heads down and we knew the race was very long,” he said Palou. “I can’t believe it. We did it (with fuel). The guys got it. They just gave me the numbers and we followed them. The strategy was amazing.”
After starting from the pole, Palou having to restart sixteenth after missing the first corner with the green flag and was one of several riders (including his teammate Dixon) who were sent to the back after an incident on the first corner. Ganassi’s drivers did not agree with the sanction.
“I don’t know what I was thinking IndyCar“You avoid an accident and they put you in the back,” he said Palou at the conclusion of the race. “But anyway, we got it.”
A victory that for the Spanish driver went much further as it gave all the confidence to the team with the work they did and left behind the problems and bad luck of the previous two.
“I don’t care much about the points right now,” he said Palou. “I think the race we did yesterday was amazing. Not me, but the guys with the strategy, the chest stops with everything. We still won, so I’m proud of that.”
For his part, Dixon, a teammate of Palou, Noted that “The call to race control to put us all back was definitely interesting, but lo and behold, it worked for us. Huge congratulations to Alex, the team. Just a weird start for the day and grateful that it ended up working for us “.
The big loser was O’Ward went from a 10-point lead over Palou at the start of the weekend to a 25-point lead after a tricky run in Portland.
The Arrow McLaren SP driver led after a typical hand-to-hand combat on the first corner of the racetrack.
But the strategy of O’Ward was harmed by a yellow on lap 52, and his Dallara-Chevrolet No. 5 struggled to keep pace later, while the rider complained of a loss of power on the straights, which would take advantage Palou to perfection then securing enough fuel reserve that made him the big winner of the weekend in Portland.