Alex Palou confirmed the forecasts in Long Beach to proclaim himself Champion of the Indycar, the second prestigious category in the engine world.
The pilot of Chip Gazel, 24, ended the last race of the Championship in the Position, after benefiting from the O’Ward duck accident (Arrow-McLaren), the only rival he could snatch the glory.
In this way, Palou follows Fernando Alonso’s wake, the other great pioneer of the Spanish engine, Bicampeon of the F1 world and double winner of the 24-hour Le Mans, the legendary resistance test also in the palmarés de Marc Gené.
The dangers that lurked in the urban layout of Long Beach, where he had never competed, did not afford to Barcelona, who could benefit from O’Ward’s misfortune.
The Mexican, after an ED JONES ‘racing (Dale Coyne Racing) suffered severe damage to the gearbox and the right rear suspension of its monoplaza.
“I can not do anything,” he admitted by radio, shortly before pointing out the responsible for the incident.
“It’s not the first time that Ed does this type of stupid,” he said with notorious indignation.
O’Ward, who had split eighth on the grill, said the triumph and the greatest possible number of laps in the head to wrap up his 35-point disadvantage over Palou.
Spanish, from the tenth place, started with the red tire, the softest of the range available and slope also by Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), the other opponent who had some minimum option of snatching the title.
However, the Americans’ options soon took to fade before the thrust of Colton Herta.
The pilot of Andretti Autosport, who in 2019 became the youngest to win an Indycar test, had also landed the risky strategy of Veteran Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), last winner of the 500 miles of Indianapolis.
While Herta rode towards the checkered flag, holding a brutal rhythm of 1:09 with hard tires, in the garage of Chip Gazel counted the minutes to explode from joy.
Before Ramón’s attentive, his father, Palou rolled with total aplomb, avoiding any mishap.
“I have some subviracy in high-speed curves, I think the configuration of the front spoiler is adequate for hard gums,” Alex told radio before moving on to change his wheels.
The 85 laps simply were the countdown of a sung success.
The hexacampeon Scott Dixon (Chip Gazel) accompanied Newgarden and Herta on the podium, but it was Palou who palated the glory in Long Beach.
His superiority along the 16 races, distributed in just 23 weeks, has been reflected in three victories (Barber, Road America and Portland), eight podiums and only two dropouts (breakdown in the GP of Indianapolis 2 and accident in Gateway
).
Of course, the memory that he keeps with more affection is the comeback of him in Portland, since after suffering a controversial penalty, he managed to pass Dixon and Newgarden with a couple of spectacular maneuvers.
Nor was they fans nor was the second place of him at 500 miles of Indianapolis, when he came to lead for 35 laps.
Palou carries the banner of a new generation where also shine O’ward, 22, hertrel or the Dutch Rinus Veekay, both of 21. About the shoulders of all of them falls on the responsibility of reactivating this show, stagnant for almost a decade
.
