Autosport – 18 April 2019

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18 APRIL 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 37

INDYCAR LONG BEACH RACE CENTRE

by his young colleague. The impact
broke the front wing on Leist’s car and
the underwing on Kanaan’s, heavily
reducing his downforce.
Of course there was a full-course caution
while the safety team bump-started the
stalled cars – Ericsson would receive a
drivethrough penalty for triggering the
melee – and the restart at the end of lap
three gave Dixon a second chance to attack
Rossi. But again as they went down the
front straight, which is in fact Shoreline
Drive’s very gentle curve to the right, Dixon
went to the shorter inside line, which again
left him on the outside of Rossi for Turn 1.
Again the Andretti driver had no problem
matching the Ganassi star under braking,
forcing him to tuck in behind.
Initially, as Rossi kept pounding out the
68s laps, Dixon was able to stay in his wake.
By lap 10 the gap was still just under 1.5s,
while Power was 3s adrift but 2s up on
team-mate Newgarden. Behind this pair
were two primary-tyred cars: Graham
Rahal’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
weapon, and the Andretti machine of
Ryan Hunter-Reay, both of whom had
demoted Pagenaud on the initial start.
Dixon’s used reds wouldn’t allow him to
hold onto Rossi indefinitely, and by lap 24
his deficit was more than 7s, while Power
had closed to within a second of the Ganassi
car. When the lead pair stopped two laps
later, both switching onto a used set of
primary tyres, Power had two laps to cut

loose before his pitstop and he emerged

from the pits ahead of Dixon, although on

cold tyres he needed to take some defensive

lines to keep the Kiwi behind. Meanwhile,

Newgarden had stretched his first stint a

lap longer than Power and, with the Aussie

slowed by taking defensive lines to fend off

Dixon, Newgarden had easily emerged in

second having jumped both Antipodeans.

Power was annoyed that he hadn’t been

allowed to go a lap longer before pitting,

thereby preventing Newgarden from getting

ahead – Will is better than Josef at fuel

saving, so the #12 team had the leeway to

do that. But he then had a different problem

on his hands. Harvey had been lapped by

Newgarden, but Power caught the Meyer

Shank car in the twisty sections of the course

and the Briton wasn’t in a huge hurry to

move over. Suddenly Dixon was back on the

rear wing of the silver Penske car. Emerging

from the 35mph Turn 11 hairpin onto the

pit straight, Power put the gas pedal to the

bulkhead, the Chevrolet engine spun the

rear wheels over a bump and the ‘overboost’

engine retardation kicked in, the ECU briefly

starving the engine of power – a failsafe to

prevent engines illegally exceeding 1.5-bar

boost on road and street courses.

Power automatically flicked his car over to

the shorter inside line for Shoreline’s gentle

curve to pre-empt a move from Dixon, and

to force him to take the longer trajectory

down to Turn 1. Power’s Chevy sprang to

life again, so that he remained ahead of

ROOKIES SHOW

THEIR RAWNESS

Some may still snigger at the idea

that the Grand Prix of Long Beach was

originally devised as the US’s answer to

the Monaco Grand Prix, but that notion is

leant some credence by the fact that its

1.968-mile layout doesn’t offer abundant

passing opportunities, yet seemingly

limitless chances to damage your race

car. Naturally, therefore, rookies have

a hard time attaining consistency.

Just a week after veterans Takuma

Sato, Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais

mounted the podium at Barber

Motorsports Park, this year’s highly

talented IndyCar rookies had their lack

of experience highlighted again by the

narrow margins of the second most

famous street course in the world.

Patricio O’Ward (below), who had

never before competed here, qualified

a highly commendable ninth fastest

for Carlin, but clouted a wall in Sunday

morning’s warm-up, losing vital track

time. Come the race, his attempts to

then also meet a fuel-mileage target

saw him tumble briefly to 16th, before

eventually finishing 12th, one lap down.

Fellow teenaged sensation and 2018

Indy Lights team-mate Colton Herta was

caught out by a red flag in Q2, and had to

start 10th. After pulling off a great pass on

O’Ward into the fountain turn during the

race, Herta eventually pushed too hard

and struck the wall at Turn 9 on lap 51.

That red flag in Q2 had been caused

by rookie Felix Rosenqvist sliding

straight on at Turn 9 after he seemed

destined for graduation to the Firestone

Fast Six. IndyCar’s deletion of his two

best laps meant he started 12th, and he

drove a fairly subdued race to finish 10th.

Fellow Swede Marcus Ericsson, like

team-mate James Hinchcliffe, hadn’t set

a time on red tyres before Tony Kanaan

brought out the red flags in Q1, so he

started 19th. His ultimate downfall

was running into Jack Harvey on

the opening lap of the race, earning

himself a drivethrough penalty.

IndyCar’s 2019 rookies are all

potential stars, but Long Beach

highlighted the gaps in their knowledge.