NKPRossi had Dixon on his tail for
a short while, but celebrated
dominant win (right)36 AUTOSPORT.COM 18 APRIL 2019RACE CENTRE INDYCAR LONG BEACH
easy, and this was one such day.
To take nothing away from Rossi or the
sixth win of his IndyCar career, the picture
was slightly skewed in his favour during
the opening stint. He, along with the three
Chevrolet-engined Team Penske cars of
Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Simon
Pagenaud – who filled positions three
through five on the grid – started on
new sets of Firestone’s alternate (softer)
compound red-sidewall tyres. Scott Dixon,
who started his Chip Ganassi Racing
machine alongside Rossi on the front row,
had gone for a used set of reds and, when he
was hung out to dry on the outside line by
the polesitter as they braked for Turn 1, he
lost his best chance to get into the lead andbottle everyone behind him as his tyres
degraded towards the end of the first stint.
In fact, the five-time and reigning champ
got a second opportunity to pass because
the caution flags flew on lap one, as Marcus
Ericsson made contact with Jack Harvey
down at the Fountain turn, which left
Harvey and the following Spencer
Pigot stalled on the track.
AJ Foyt Racing, which hasn’t looked
competitive since the Indianapolis 500
last May, managed to get embroiled too.
Tony Kanaan, who had qualified last after a
shunt cost him his two best laps, had passed
team-mate Matheus Leist in the first turn
but, when the veteran swerved to avoid the
Ericsson-triggered shunt, he was rammedf you thought Alexander
Rossi’s performance at Long
Beach in 2018 was dominant,
you’d be right. He led 71 of
the 85 laps, and was able to
pull away whenever he was threatened.
But his latest performance at America’s
classic street race was something else again.
As last year, Rossi started his Honda-
powered Andretti Autosport car from pole,
his advantage over his closest competitor
reduced from 0.35 seconds in 2018 to 0.27s
this year – but his pace advantage on race
day appeared to have increased by at least
the same amount, and this time he led 80
laps. Once or twice during an IndyCar
season, the race winner makes it lookI
The Andretti Autosport star was dominant on the streets in his home state in 2018.
Last weekend he stepped up another level to blitz the opposition at Long Beach
DAVID MALSHER(^) PHOTOGRAPHY
Storming Rossi has another
California beach party