Indianapolis (United States) (AFP)
The young Dutchman Rinus Veekay won his first IndyCar victory on Saturday at the Indianapolis GP, ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean, who was only the third race in this Championship, less than six months after his spectacular crash in Formula 1.
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.
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.
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 GPs contested between 2009 and 2020.
Grosjean left F1 in spectacular fashion at the end of 2020, coming out almost unscathed, but burned in his hands, from a frightening fire at the Bahrain Grand Prix, after his Haas, the only American F1 team, crashed against the rail of security.
Very happy with his debut in Indycar, Grosjean, 35, who was born in Switzerland and has dual nationality, revealed this week that he is "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 Miles in 15 days, the absolute peak of the Indycar season, because he has decided not to race on ovals this season.
© 2021 AFP