Victory and blow to the championship of Álex Palou in the roller coaster of Portland
He had it lost and in the end he leaves Portland super reinforced. Álex Palou, like almost all riders today, experienced a roller coaster of emotions and situations that, fortunately, ended up favoring the interests of the Spaniard, who added his third victory of the year, regains control of the competition and hits a good blow, especially Duck O'Ward.
But the situation was just the opposite after the first round. Starting on pole nearly cost Palou the championship - contrary to expectations - and, conversely, gave O'Ward the lead. However, just after passing the halfway point of the test, the race took a complete turn... doing justice to what was seen this weekend.
Palou's impressive victory, ahead of all his rivals for the title, returns the Spaniard to the leadership of Indycar with a 25 advantage over O'Ward (fourteenth today), 34 over Dixon (who was third today) and 49 with Newgarden (fifth in Portland). But such a good result seemed impossible... after the first corner.
Chaos at the start
The start was already tremendously conflictive. Palou promised them very happy starting from pole but Félix Rosenqvist was in charge of complicating things greatly. He touched Palou and Dixon under braking and forced both Ganassis off the track, failing to complete the first chicane.
A troubled river won... O'Ward, who took the lead without eating or drinking it thanks, yes, to an action to the limit by his teammate that was even more decisive than initially expected. Race management, in anticipation of this happening, had previously warned the drivers that those who cut the chicane would go to the bottom of the table, behind those who did complete it. Thus, when the green came back the race was upside down, with the Mexican leader and Palou 17th (behind even Newgarden), with Dixon glued to his tail.
He had to come back and for this the first measure was to enter the pits to refuel, get out of sequence with the leaders and wait for the circumstances to favor them.
luck returned
And, fortunately, that happened (accompanied by a strategic misstep by McLaren). Just after reaching the middle of the race, two chained problems by Callum Illot and Dalton Kellet caused a yellow card that ruined everything again.
O'Ward, who had found himself in control of the race, gave up the lead after his first stop in favor of Rahal, but his situation was still privileged thinking about the championship, with Palou and Dixon out of the ten first. However, at McLaren they made a key mistake by stopping for the second time just before the second yellow flag... and their situation was turned upside down.
Suddenly, O'Ward fell behind tenth again and the cars in the alternative strategy benefited so much from this break that when they all completed their last stop Palou was the leader, with Rossi second and Dixon third... exactly the same as when the race started.
And so they would go to the end despite the fact that two final yellow flags tested Palou's nerves on the restarts... with the additional disadvantage of having the hard tires against the soft ones of Rossi and Dixon.
All in all, the balance for Palou is unbeatable: third victory of the year (more than any other driver, which is an advantage in the event of a tie on points), plus the extra spoils of pole position and having led the race. And, above all, the confirmation that the Ganassi team is capable of turning any situation around, no matter how unfavorable it may seem... and that the Catalan once again has luck on his side.
Portland GP Results
- Alex Palou (Ganassi) - 2h 07:04
- Alex Rossi (Andretti) at 1289s.
- Scott Dixon (Ganassi) at 4440s.
- Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank) at 8220s.
- Josef Newgarden (Penske) at 8,956 s.
Indycar General Classification
- Alex Palou (Ganassi) - 477 points
- Patrick O'Ward (McLaren SP) - 452 points
- Josef Newgarden (Penske) - 443 points.
- Scott Dixon (Ganassi) - 428 points.
- Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi) - 402 points.