The Grand Prix of Alabama, held at the Barber Motorsports Park, was this weekend’s face of IndyCar. Once again, the driver’s face of IndyCar, Alex Palou from Chip Ganassi Racing, was the one to watch as he qualified on pole ahead of Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who is the reigning race winner having won there last year.
A three-stop strategy was favoured, with a mix between doing two sets of softs and a set of hards and two sets of hards and a set of softs. Third to fifth placed Colton Herta, Will Power and Rinus VeeKay started on hards, with Palou and McLaughlin ahead both on softs.
Race start
Off the start, Kyffin Simpson, Louis Foster, Fellix Rosenqvist and David Malukas all made places off the start, with Josef Newgarden, Marcus Armstrong, Santino Ferrucci and Conor Daly dropping positions.
The opening lap was relatively clean. Jacob Abel made a huge move on Callum Ilott for 21st, but the battle at the front remained close between Palou and McLaughlin. After the opening lap, Palou led from McLaughlin, Herta, Power, VeeKay, Nolan Siegel, Christian Lundgaard, Pato O’Ward, Marcus Armstrong, who got back ahead of Louis Foster and Kyffin Simpson and in tenth, Alexander Rossi.
Christian Rasmussen attempted a move on Newgarden, but it was too tight and Rasmussen was forced out wide. Rossi continued his momentum and got past Armstrong for ninth while Lundgaard passed teammate Siegel for sixth. Kyle Kirkwood moved into 15th ahead of Ferrucci, as Kirkwood was on the softs while Ferrucci was on the hards.
Rossi, on the softs, had six drivers on hards ahead of him, and he was hungry for more positions. This was evidenced by Rossi spending quite a lot of his push to pass,
Rasmussen finally got ahead of Newgarden, with the same tyre deficit that Rossi had to the six in front of him. After five laps, only the top six were in the 1:09 laptimes. Kirkwood followed Rasmussen through, and the black-tyred runners were dropping back, choosing to get rid of their pain early on.
Palou pulled out a gap and by lap 10, he was over three seconds ahead of McLaughlin. Herta was six seconds back in third followed two and a half seconds back from Power then VeeKay, Lundgaard and a close quartet of Siegel, O’Ward. Rossi and Armstrong.
Opening stages
Marcus Ericsson was the first driver to go into the pits at the end of lap 10, taking off the blacks for the softs. Now he was in clean air and gave the others on the black tyres something to think about in regards to pace. Ericsson’s first full lap was the quickest lap on track. A lap later, Graham Rahal also pitted, coming out a few seconds ahead of Ericsson.
McLaughlin complained of left rear tyre issues, which showed with his pace as he was two tenths a lap slower than Palou. At the end of lap 13, Callum Ilott also came in to put softs on and he was now last. Ericsson was setting times quicker than any other in the field.
Newgarden, who was struggling in 15th, came in the next lap, seeing the pace set by the trio who had pitted. Despite leaving it several laps, Newgarden remained the highest of the drivers who did pit.
The Foyt duo of Ferrucci and Malukas and Dixon followed suit soon, leaving only Herta, Power, VeeKay, Lundgaard, Siegel and O’Ward left on the blacks. O’Ward came in next, as did Kirkwood, albeit he pitted from being on softs due to mechanical issues.
O’Ward filtered out first in the pack. Following him was Newgarden, Ferrucci, Kirkwood, Rahal, Malukas, Ericsson, Dixon and Ilott.
Lundgaard came out of the pits on worn softs, which left him with two sets of new softs. He was now first of the pack until McLaughlin, Power and Siegel also pitted. McLaughlin needed to undercut to have a chance to jump Palou.
McLaughlin re-entered in 13th, with Power, Lundgaard, O’Ward, SIegel and Ferrucci behind of the pitted drivers.
VeeKay and Simpson were next to pit, leaving Palou and Herta out on track. Simpson was delayed in the pits and VeeKay had a slower pitstop.
The issues for both put them back as VeeKay lost out to two of the three McLarens and Simpson dropped behind Malukas to 24th.
Herta, Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco also pitted, which meant that Palou, Rossi, Armstrong, Christian Rasmussen, Felix Rosenqvist, Conor Daly, Sting Ray Robb, Abel and Robert Shwartzman were the last to pit.
Herta was released and he jumped McLaughlin, Foster slotted between Kirkwood and Rahal while DeFrancesco was last.
Rossi, Rasmussen and Abel all pitted on the same lap which was the end of lap 22. Shwartzman pitted just before as well. Rossi remained behind two McLarens but got ahead of Siegel. Rasmussen came out in the mid-pack while Abel dropped to the back.
The leader Palou finally pitted and only dropped to third, keeping a solid gap to Herta.
Meyer Shank left it late to pit as Armstrong and Rosenqvist spent the most amount of time on the reds, running over 25 laps.
When Armstrong finally pitted, the order was now clear. Armstrong was now eighth and Rosenqvist 14th. Palou led from Herta, McLaughlin, Power, Lundgaard, O’Ward, VeeKay, Armstrong, Rossi and Siegel. Palou and McLaughlin were the only drivers on the hard tyres.
Second part of the race
McLaughlin was struggling to pull away from Power in fourth, giving the Penske team something to think about around strategy. Although this was made difficult because Power himself was quickly followed by Lundgaard. Only Armstrong in eighth and Rossi in ninth didn’t go onto both compounds.
Ferrucci pitted on lap 30, switching from the used reds onto a set of new reds. Due to a short fill up on his first stop, Ferrucci was looking like it would be a four stop for him.
Palou was still setting incredible pace at the front, as he was the sole driver in the 1:09 lap times at the end of lap 31. Whilst Herta was on used softs, it was still impressive that Palou was consistently quicker than Herta. We were now a third of the way through the 90-lap Grand Prix of Alabama.
McLaughlin, Power and Lundgaard were still ina close pack behind. Now they were joined by O’Ward and VeeKay too. Barring the gap from Palou to Herta, the biggest between two cars in the top ten was McLaughlin being 2.6 seconds behind, showing how close the pack still was at the front. Outside the top ten the order was Newgarden, Kirkwood, Rosenqvist, Rahal, Foster, Rasmussen, Daly, Malukas, Simpson and Dixon.
Pitting on lap 37 was Ericsson, who had a torrid day compared to teammate Herta and even Kirkwood who was in 12th. He was attempting to undercut the drivers ahead. He was not the only one, as Rahal and Simpson also pitted. Rahal was aiming to pass Rosenqvist while Simpson was looking to jump Malukas, Daly and Rasmussen. Rahal was behind Ferrucci, while Simpson had a woeful stop which put him last. Ilott pitted too, coming out behind Simpson.
Lap 39 was the busiest of the race on pit row as Lundgaard, Newgarden, Malukas and Dixon all pitted. Lundgaard was trying to pass McLaughlin and Power. He was 16th, with Newgarden in 20th, Dixon in 23rd and Malukas in 25th.
Several laps later, Power, O’Ward and Kirkwood all pitted. Power and O’Ward did not want to be jumped by Lundgaard, who was quick on the softs. Power was on used softs. Lundgaard was initially behind O’Ward, but he got ahead while O’Ward’s tyres were warming up. He was trying to close on Power. Meanwhile, McLaughlin pitted. Lundgaard managed to jump ahead of Power and was now hunting down McLaughlin, who was trying to warm his tyres up.
He then did the ‘Romain Grosjean’ move, going around the outside of the final turn of McLaughlin to move up to third and exclaimed: “see ya!” after making the move.
The sole McLaren to pit, Siegel, came in as did Shwartzman. Siegel dropped behind Newgarden in 16th while Shwartzman was 26th.
Herta and VeeKay followed suit, leaving Palou, Armstrong, Rossi, Rosenqvist, Foster, Rasmussen, Daly, Robb and DeFrancesco to pit. VeeKay went onto used softs as did Herta.
Colton Herta’s bad luck continued. He went from second in the order down to seventh due to a stall in the pits. Ahead of him, VeeKay, Power and O’Ward battled for what would now be fourth in the order. Once his tyres had warmed up, he was now behind Rossi.
Foster and Palou soon pitted, and yet again it was perfection from the Ganassi crew, who continued a net lead. Foster meanwhile was behind Siegel in 16th. Sting Ray Robb had also pitted and was now 20th.
Now Armstrong, Rosenqvist, Daly and Rasmussen needed to pit. The first of the quartet to pit was Rasmussen, who came out in 18th. Daly followed on lap 49 and was now
Finally, once the Meyer Shank duo both pitted, the order was finally settled. Armstrong had a delay in the pits and he was now down to 10th. Rosenqvist was in 13th. Newgarden was trying to pass Armstrong, with Siegel just behind.
The top ten was now Palou, Lundgaard, McLaughlin, VeeKay, Power, O’Ward, Rossi, Herta, Ferrucci and Armstrong.
Every driver barring Armstrong, Rosenqvist, Daly, Robb, Simpson, DeFrancesco, Shwartzman and Abel were on the reds.
Ferrucci pitted for the third time, showing that he needed to make four stops. He was down in 23rd now.
Kirkwood made a move on Rosenqvist, with the tyre deficit showing.
The first yellow flag of the race came out, as Foster spun from 18th, dropping him back to 26th, now only ahead of Abel. Foster ran wide at the final corner, going off the track onto the wet grass.
The final third of the race
Armstrong pitted at the end of lap 59, which dropped the Kiwi down to 21st.
Malukas and Daly had a great battle for 16th. Malukas attempted an overtake in the opening sector, but was unable to get ahead on lap 61.
Palou was relaxed up front, with a set of new softs waiting for him on pitlane soon.
Rahal and Simpson were the first to pit for the final time, which dropped them down to 21st and 25th.
O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Malukas and Ericsson quickly followed suit as did Palou and Lundgaard.
The following lap, Power, Newgarden, Daly, Ilott, Foster, Robb and DeFrancesco followed them in. The only drivers who needed to pit were McLaughlin, VeeKay, Herta, Siegel, Kirkwood, Dixon, Rasmussen and Newgarden. VeeKay came in, and he had all sorts of issues on pit row which dropped him down the order.
VeeKay was fighting with Power on pit exit as he was on cold tyres compared to the warm tyres of Power. Now there was 17 laps to go and everyone had pitted.
Palou was still in the lead ahead of Lundgaard, McLaughlin, VeeKay, Power, O’Ward, Rossi, Herta, Siegel and Newgarden. Of the field, only Rossi and Kirkwood were on blacks.
Rossi slowly dropped back, as Herta got ahead of the Ed Carpenter Racing driver for eighth but was five seconds behind O’Ward who was seventh.
Armstrong pitted from 13th which dropped him down the order to 21st.
Ferrucci had a massive moment but managed to save it.
Herta was setting a rapid pace, with a 1:09.4834, being over a second a lap quicker than O’Ward and Power ahead. He was slowly chipping away at the gap after that lap.
Ferrucci now had his final stop, which put him in 18th behind Armstrong.
Siegel was the next to close on Rossi. Dixon, who started in 26th, was now in 12th, having passed Rosenqvist a few laps prior, he was now just behind Kirkwood for 11th.
Now Power, O’Ward and Herta were all in a group together for fifth, with only 1.4 seconds separating the trio. They remained line astern for over ten laps.
Ericsson meanwhile was suffering from front wing damage and was holding up Lundgaard with Simpson. This meant Lundgaard was losing time hand over fist to McLaughlin. Lundgaard finally got past Simpson, but McLaughlin was closing in.
Lundgaard was still stuck behind Ericsson but finally got ahead with six laps to go in the race. McLaughlin himself was struggling to pass Simpson and Ericsson which gave VeeKay an outside chance of a podium. VeeKay not only was closing on McLaughlin, but pulled ten seconds on Power. Whilst it was a challenge for the Dutchman to clear Ilott’s Prema, he managed to do so and had two laps to catch McLaughlin.
The white flag was out and it was an insanely dominant performance from Alex Palou, winning by 16 seconds from Lundgaard.
McLaughlin barely held on for third.