IndyCar – Podium for Romain Grosjean, only beaten by Veekay for his 3rd race

He came close to success. He will largely be satisfied with the podium. Six months after his spectacular Formula 1 crash, Romain Grosjean finished second in the Indianapolis Grand Prix for his third Indycar race. The Frenchman was beaten by the young Dutchman Rinus Veekay, author of his first success in the discipline, this Saturday.

At the wheel of his Ed Carpenter Racing single-seater, Veekay, barely 20, got the better of Grosjean, who started from pole position, about fifteen laps from the end of this race with 85, on the road layout of the famous oval where the legendary 500 Miles will be contested in two weeks.

« It’s a really good day« , nevertheless welcomed the French. »I think we did a good job this weekend. We were super fast. A bit unlucky too with the slower cars in traffic, but for my third race in IndyCar it’s not too bad« .

Veekay led 33 of the 85 laps and benefited from a perfect strategy from his team, who never put harder tires on him during the race, and therefore favored the performance from start to finish, as Grosjean completed several laps on hard tires. Spaniard Alex Palou, another debutant who has already won this season like Mexican Pat O’Ward, finished third, giving Grosjean’s Dale Coyne Racing team two places on the podium.

Grosjean launched his American dream after the nightmare

The Top 6 was completed by the Americans Josef Newgarden (4th, Penske), Graham Rahal (5th, Rahal Letterman Lanigan) and another French, Simon Pagenaud (6th, Penske), who had won the 500 Miles and was already crowned Indycar champion.

Sébastien Bourdais (AJ Foyt), the third French representative in Indycar, finished in 19th position. Like Grosjean, he also raced in F1 but without obtaining as good results as the former Haas driver, who climbed ten F1 podiums in 179 Grands Prix contested between 2009 and 2020. Grosjean left F1 at the end of 2020 so spectacular, coming out almost unscathed, but burned in the hands, of a frightening fire at the Bahrain Grand Prix, after a shock of his Haas, the only American F1 team, against the safety rail.

Very happy with his debut in Indycar, Grosjean, 35, who was born in Switzerland and has dual nationality, revealed this week that he « looking for a house in the United States« to live there with his wife and three children. He will not be competing in the Indianapolis 500, the Indycar season’s absolute peak in two weeks, because he has decided not to race on ovals this season.