Alex Palou looked like he was going to walk away with yet another IndyCar victory this past weekend at Mid-Ohio, but he could not keep the lead he had built over the first stint of the race.
As the second stint was winding down, Pato O’Ward was hot on his heels and looking for an opportunity to rush into the lead.
That opportunity came when Palou was slow getting away from his final pit stop on lap 55. It appeared that the Spaniard simply failed to drive away when servicing was done, but there was more at play.
Palou had attempted to engage first gear while the car was still being refueled, which led to the car rejecting his request for a gear. The couple seconds spent scrambling to get the car in gear once the car was fueled was all O’Ward needed to stream past into the lead.
“Just tried to engage first gear too early,” admitted Palou after the race. “My mechanics were super good on tires and you cannot engage first gear when the fueler is in. So yeah, I just tried, and it got denied.
“It was like, I don’t know, half a second or one second. Yeah, totally my fault. If you try [to shift] when the fueler is in, it doesn’t allow you. Then suddenly they released me and I couldn’t get it because there was a small delay.
“Our in lap was pretty terrible, had traffic, didn’t engage first gear as normally because I knew I had a crazy in lap. Didn’t work out.
“It feels a bit worse when you know that you had the car and everything that you needed to win, but still, it was a good podium day.”
Palou was able to close onto the gearbox of O’Ward in the final laps of the race, but there was little opportunity to pass and he had to settle for second place.
The reigning champion still increased his points lead, however, and now sits 48 points ahead of Will Power heading into the oval-heavy portion of the season.
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