Palou powers to victory in a chaotic Detroit Grand Prix
- Evan Roberts
- 3 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Written by Evan Roberts
Only three things are certain in life. Death, taxes and the Detroit Grand Prix producing a chaotic, caution-filled motor race.
If you were to add a fourth to that list, it would undoubtedly be the indomitable Álex Palou, who picked up yet another victory. His third of the year on a street course. He would be joined on the podium once again by Kyle Kirkwood, who took the challenge to the Spaniard before eventually falling off late in the race. The third step would go to the impressive Graham Rahal, who earned his third podium of the season.
Race Report
Starting from pole for the 16th time in his IndyCar career, and a third in a row, Palou led the field to green in Detroit. Surprisingly, in not-so Detroit fashion, the first lap was remarkably clean. No cautions and overall limited chaos. The main move was for second place, where Scott McLaughlin passed former teammate Will Power down the inside on the first corner.
One driver struggling early on was Team Penske's Josef Newgarden, who dropped to last from a starting position of 21st, evidently still struggling from his major impact at Turn 4 on one of many restarts in last weekend's Indianapolis 500.
After a fairly calm start to the race, the inevitable first caution of the race came out on Lap 10 when Christian Rasmussen went hard into a wall on the exit of Turn 1. He would attempt to carry his stricken Dale Coyne Racing car to the following turn, where he eventually came to a stop after giving Indy 500 Champion Felix Rosenqvist a scare as the Swede approached Rasmussen, who was snaking from side to side with his broken right-front suspension.
A few drivers used the caution to go off-strategy and make their first stops, including Rosenqvist, who utilised the strategy so well a week prior.
On the restart, it was the No.26 Andretti Global car of Power on the move as he made his way past McLaughlin before dispatching race leader Palou a mere lap later in an audacious move into Turn 3.
As the crossover point between the soft and hard tyres started to come to fruition around Lap 25, moves were being made across the field. Two of which involved some elbows-out action as Louis Foster muscled his way past Marcus Armstrong for ninth, soon followed by Christian Lundgaard, who snuck around the outside of Turn 3. Both overtaking drivers utilised the extra grip of their less-worn hard tyres.
As tyres started to fade, race leader Power became a cork in the bottle neck as a queue started to build behind the Australian. On lap 32, Palou attempted a move for the lead, but with Power holding the inside line, Palou was forced the long way round, where he lost several positions to McLauglin, then Lundgaard, as he was left floundering off-line.
Palou was the first of the lead drivers to head to the pits, followed a lap later by the remainder of the soft-tyre starters. The Spaniard managed to undercut the group of drivers in front by an incredible three seconds as the drivers who stayed out lost time battling on incredibly worn rubber.
What this meant was Armstrong took the lead of the race as the hard tyre runners stopped a few laps later. Just after the pit-cycle appeared to finish, the second caution of the race came out on Lap 39 as Rahal spun at Turn 3. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver managed to refire his car and rejoin the race, albeit towards the back of the pack.
When the pits reopened, the remaining drivers on the alternate strategy, including Rosenqvist and Newgarden, relinquished the lead to leave Palou in pole position once again for the second restart.
Much like the first, it was another clean restart as Palou powered into the distance.
The race fell into a lull in the laps that followed; the only incident of note was an uncharacteristic mistake from Scott Dixon, who took to the escape road at Turn 8. He would only lose a few positions as he calmly spun his car 180 degrees and back onto track in 10th place.
As the laps ticked by, Kirkwood slowly started to reel in Palou for the lead, where the gap was around two seconds. Seeing this, Palou was the first driver to head to the pits once again, which put the rest of the field in the danger zone.
Just as it looked like Kirkwood was looking to overcut the Spaniard, the third caution of the race came out as Santino Ferrucci got into the back of Rinus VeeKay's car going into Turn 5, spinning the Juncos Hollinger car around.
Palou played his cards right yet again and was joined in making the right call by Alexander Rossi and the Penske duo of Newgarden and David Malukas. A remarkable turn of events for two heavily injured drivers and a car that started last on the grid.
The saying cautions breed cautions was true for the first time this race as the drivers in third and fourth, Mick Schumacher and Malukas, were caught in an incident as Schumacher made himself a moving road block on the restart with some good defensive moves before putting all that good work to waste by locking up into Turn 5 taking Malukas with him as the Chicago-native found himself stuck on the outside, unable to turn in.
What this chaos meant was that once Rossi served a drive-through penalty, Kirkwood was once again the nearest challenger for the lead.
Behind those two, there was a major battle for third place between Power and McLaughlin, at one point, Power even went onto two wheels as he was ushered into the wall on the outside of Turn 4 by his Australian counterpart. Whilst it did not cause a caution, it did take Power out of the race. Likewise, for McLaughlin, several laps later.
Where that incident may not have brought out another caution, Santino Ferrucci grinding to a halt on the entrance to Turn 5 certainly did.
With only 17 laps to go, Palou expertly executed the restart on harder tyres to create a gap of around one second to Kirkwood.
Just as it had been for what felt like the entire second half of the race, it was once again Kirkwood charging him down.
Unfortunately for him, his softer red tyres had seen better days as he started to bleed time to the dominant Spaniard.
With only 10 Laps to go, there was a final caution of the race as a clumsy collision saw Rossi attempt to cross over Romain Grosjean into the hard braking zone in Turn 4, collecting the Frenchman, who made contact with the wall before continuing after the marshals put him facing forward and taking his front wing for ransom.
Another perfect Palou restart wrapped the race up for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver as he controlled the race in superb style to earn his fourth win of the season. Kirkwood was second to keep himself in the running for the Drivers' Championship, Rahal rounding out the podium, making up for an early spin to sneak his way to a brilliant finish.
