Fernando Alonso he will have to wait, at least, for his contract with Renault in Formula 1 to end. The Asturian finished 21st in the Indianapolis 500, which took Takuma Sato, one of the great favorites and who adds his second Borg Warner trophy to his record. Team Rahal rider beat Scott Dixon in a heart attack home stretch, as they almost always do on the most famous oval in the world. A strange tradition is fulfilled: second race in which Alonso competes, second victory for Sato.
It was a career that started with a scare. Ed Carpenter was found against the wall by a somewhat aggressive defense of Santino Ferrucci (a pilot who was thrown out of F2 for this type of action), which made him immediately get into the pits. Much worse was James Davidson, whose right front tire literally caught fire from the friction of the brake disc on the rim.
This incident and its subsequent tire blowout caused the first yellow flag race, which forced the neutralization of the ‘multicolored snake’, worth the comparative cyclist. That made Alonso lose the positions he won in the good start, when he climbed up to 16th, since he decided to enter the ‘pits’ like many others who were going backwards. In short: Alonso went on to a strategy ‘counterfeit’ with respect to those above, who commanded a Scott Dixon It took just a few meters to take the first place from the ‘poleman’ Marco Andretti.
Marcus Ericsson It caused a second yellow flag, after hitting the wall for going out into the dirty area, and led to the confirmation of Alonso’s strategic change. The Spaniard came back into ‘boxes’ to make a second stop and seek to save one later, especially in the event of a hypothetical third incident that would allow him to stay on track while the rest were going to enter.
That third incident came around lap 80, a key moment of the race. Dalton Kellet it crashed and caused the third yellow of this edition, just before Dixon could double Alonso. This movement was key, since in the highlight of this accident, Askew and Daly had a strong parallel accident (without contact between them) at the beginning but that ended with both colliding. This led to the halfway point of the race in the upper zone, and possibly to fight with those above. but everything changed radically.
Palou crashes and Alonso cala
The problems came as the equator of the race passed, and it was for the two Spaniards almost at the same time. The highlight after the neutralization by the Askew and Daly accidents, Palou took out the ‘attack mode’. From 13th to 9th in four laps, all eyes were on the young Spanish rookie, who was making a memorable comeback. until Indianapolis passed sentence.
The Catalan crashed into the wall at Turn 1 as he went out into the dirty zone when he was struggling to get 8th, ruining his great performance in recent weeks. Palou was shattered, but he had already left his hallmark in this legendary career, although it was not the only bad news for the Spanish in this phase of the race.
Taking advantage of this new yellow, everyone entered the ‘pits’. and that’s where Alonso sank. A problem in the gearbox of your Arrow McLaren SP He made him stall the car, forcing him to change the steering wheel and modify the rest of the race. While he was losing a full lap with the peloton, he was warned: at the next pit stop (he had one or two left, at the very least) he could not put in first, but had to enter the pits in neutral and would be pushed to go out. Total debacle for the Asturian’s aspirations, while above Scott Dixon, the great favorite, went for victory … with permission from a Takuma Sato that was uncovered in the final stretch career.
And in the end it was the Japanese who prevailed. A lethal pace in the last 20 laps allowed him to face the defense of the first position in front, against a Dixon who was powerless against the Japanese. Everything in the end was decided by him Spencer Pigot’s strong accident, which crashed into the separation wall between the boxes and the track and caused the race to end under a yellow flag.
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