(Motorsport-Total.com) – After seven races in the 2021 season, the IndyCar series has seven different winners and the fourth premiere winner. On Saturday, it was Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi-Honda) who drove into victory lane in the first of two races of the double-header at Belle Isle in Detroit. The 30-year-old Swede is contesting his third IndyCar season.
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First IndyCar win for Marcus Ercisson (Ganassi-Honda) at Race 1 in Detroit
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The race was interrupted for more than an hour due to a serious accident involving Ericsson’s Swedish compatriot Felix Rosenqvist. Rosenqvist is currently at a Detroit hospital to be investigated for possible injuries but is not life-threatening. (Photos: IndyCar doubles in Detroit)
Start: O’Ward at the front – Championship leader Palou at the bottom
Patricio O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet) started the race from pole. At the other end of the grid: Championship leader Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda), who was dropped six grid positions due to an engine change. However, the engine change was not made during the current Detroit weekend, but two weeks ago shortly before the start of the Indy 500. The Spaniard had finished this as a narrowly beaten second and thus took the lead in the standings.
At the start of Saturday’s race in Detroit, pole setter O’Ward set the pace. The Mexican entered the first corner in front of Alexander Rossi (Andretti-Honda) who had started from P2 and Romain Grosjean (Coyne-Honda) who had started from P3. The trio also came back from the first of the 70 laps in this order.
IndyCar 2021: Detroit I
Highlights from Race 7 of 17 of the 2021 IndyCar Series, Race 1 at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Detroit’s Belle Isle! More formula racing videos
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But already on the third lap, leader O’Ward turned into the pit lane to change tires. He swapped the soft tires (reds) on which he had secured pole two hours earlier for fresh hard tires (blacks). During the following laps, numerous other pilots also switched to the Blacks. They included Rossi, Grosjean and almost everyone else who made it into the top 12 in qualifying.
Will Power (Penske-Chevrolet) started from P7 and was one of the few in the top 12 not to make his first pit stop right at the start. He took the lead, but had to cede it to Scott Dixon (Ganassi-Honda), who had started from P11, on lap 12 on the track. The defending champion, on the other hand, was one of only four pilots in the field who started directly with the Blacks. The other three: James Hinchcliffe (Andretti-Honda), Graham Rahal (Rahal-Honda) and Alex Palou, who was placed all the way back.
A violent crash by Rosenqvist causes an hour of red
In lap 25 there was the first yellow phase, which turned into a red phase shortly afterwards. The reason was a violent crash by Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren-Chevrolet). At Turn 6, the 90-degree right that joins the sweeping back straight, the car shot straight ahead with no discernible braking effect. It even looked as if the car had accelerated.
When it hit the tire wall, the car with Rosenqvist in the cockpit almost flew over the tire wall and the wall behind it. In the end, however, the car got stuck on the tire wall and was partially covered by tyres.
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Felix Rosenqvist caused a big scare with his crash in turn 6 Zoom
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Immediately after the impact, Rosenqvist opened his helmet visor himself and pulled the fire protection hood off his head after the helmet was removed. This was shown by the images from the onboard camera. The 29-year-old Swede was apparently suffering from pain. He was unable to free himself from the cockpit on his own.
It took rescue workers a few minutes to free Rosenqvist and put him on a stretcher. The ambulance first went to the medical center on the route and a little later to a hospital in downtown Detroit for a more detailed examination.
Doctor Geoffrey Billows, the medical director of the IndyCar series, said during the telecast on NBC: “Felix is fine. He is conscious and has never lost consciousness. He has been all the time He’s in some pain but no loss of function anywhere. His condition has been stable throughout. We’re sending him to the hospital in town to get a more accurate picture.”
Power leads at the restart – Grosjean with a flat foot
After a break of one hour and 20 minutes, the race resumed. Led by Scott Dixon, most of the leading group pitted while still under yellow, which was Dixon’s first stop of the race. On the other hand, Will Power was the first in the ranks of pilots to stay out under yellow.
With 39 laps remaining, Power led the field at the restart, followed by Ganassi driver Marcus Ericsson and Takuma Sato (Rahal-Honda). Patricio O’Ward, who started the race from pole, was only 13th at the restart. He was one of those who, like Dixon, had stopped under yellow.
Dixon, who now had the soft tires on, was eighth after the restart after the first lap, just behind Romain Grosjean. Just a few laps later, however, the Frenchman swerved into the pit lane with a flat front right.
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Romain Grosjean first suffered a puncture and slid into the wall shortly before the end Zoom
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At the front, Power was under pressure. Ericsson was right behind the Australian, with the Swede in turn having Rinus VeeKay (Carpenter-Chevrolet) right behind his neck. In the 44th of 70 laps, while in eighth place, Dixon switched from the soft tires to fresh, hard ones. It was the scheduled last stop for the defending IndyCar champion.
Power stayed on track and in the lead until lap 48. Then he also stopped for fresh, hard tyres, at the same time as his direct pursuer Ericsson. When sorted back onto the track, Power was fifth with Ericsson sixth. They had four pilots in front of them whose last stop was still to come. After they also pitted, Power was back in the lead, but still just ahead of Ericsson and VeeKay. Meanwhile, Dixon got stuck in traffic after his earlier stop. At the beginning of the final phase he was only listed in 13th place.
Crash from Grosjean and bad luck for Power
In the battle for third place, Takuma Sato over-braked VeeKay at Turn 5 with seven laps to go. A lap later, Romain Grosjean hit his purple Coyne Honda against the wall in the section near the fountain.
It was a harmless wall contact, but it was the end of the race for Grosjean, who freed himself from the car on his own. The IndyCar rookie from France was absolutely fine. Nevertheless, red was shown for the second time that day. The cars were stopped in the pit lane. It is not yet entirely clear why.
On the other hand, one thing is clear: When it was supposed to start again for the last five laps, there was a huge disappointment for Will Power. The black Penske Chevrolet with the starting number 12 no longer started! Power had to watch the field pass him by.
At the restart with four laps left, Ericsson was in the lead. Behind them, VeeKay regained the position just lost to Sato right into Turn 1. Sato lost momentum and also had to let Patricio O’Ward go. It stayed that way.
Marcus Ericsson clinched his first IndyCar victory after Will Power’s bad luck. Rinus VeeKay was second with Patricio O’Ward third after starting from pole. Takuma Sato and Rahal teammate Graham Rahal rounded out the top five. Scott Dixon still finished P8 with his different strategy. For Will Power it was only P20 in the final result.
Power’s Penske teammate and co-favorite Josef Newgarden also had little to smile about in the first of the two Detroit races. When switching to the hard tires early on, the left rear wheel was not tightened properly. In the duel with Colton Herta (Andretti-Honda), the wheel began to wobble and fell off completely a little later. Newgarden crossed the finish line in P10.
And while Romain Grosjean was only classified P23 after his late run into the wall at Turn 8, Penske rookie Scott McLaughlin, who was new to Detroit like Grosjean, finished P19 after a wall contact, which the car survived.
Jimmie Johnson, who was also new to Detroit, had to deal with a sensor problem after just a few laps. “Suddenly I only had 30 percent of the effect of the accelerator available,” said Johnson during the more than one-hour break, when he was already 18 laps behind due to the defective sensor. The rest of the race was then “used as a test session”, according to Johnson, who was ultimately rated P24.
Race 2 of the double header in Detroit will start on Sunday at 12:50 p.m. local time (18:50 CEST) and will again cover 70 laps.
UPDATE, Sunday 5:00 a.m. CEST: Felix Rosenqvist will spend the night in hospital on the advice of doctors. He will be represented by Oliver Askew in Sunday’s race in Detroit.
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