Dixon on podium; Verstappen wins McLaughlin finishes 14th incident-filled Italian Grand Prix
New Zealand’s Indycar star Scott Dixon made a smooth start to his
2021 season in the United States with another podium effort in Alabama yesterday.
Dixon finished third behind Spanish winner Alex Polau and Australian Will Power in at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham.
New Zealand rookie Scott McLaughlin had to be satisfied with
14th.
Dixon has never won in Alabama but recorded his 11th podium there – eight seconds and three thirds.
Dixon, seeking a record-equalling seventh drivers championship this year, was satisfied with his opening effort but also quickly discovered one of his biggest threats could be close to home.
Polau was making his debut for Chip Ganassi Racing and upstaged his illustrious stablemate Dixon.
He showed he has the driving skills to match his fast car.
Former Formula One star Roman Grosjean was the top rookie in 10th while seven-time Nascar champion Jimmie Johnson was
19th, three laps down.
While McLaughlin never threatened at the front end of the race, he gained invaluable experience and battled reigning Indy 500 champion Kasuma Sato to the finish line.
‘‘Learnt a tonne this weekend, nice to get a race under my belt. Team had great pit stops and the car had good speed,’’ McLaughlin tweeted after the race.
The Ganassi team used a twostop pit strategy to get two drivers on the podium and have three in the top eight.
Pole-winner Pato O’Ward had the best speed of the day but paid the price for three pit stops and chased Dixon home to finish fourth.
‘‘We knew [a win] was possible because we knew we had the best team and the best cars,’’ Palou said. ‘‘It’s amazing to be part of the winning drivers.’’
Palou was the quieter offseason signing of the Ganassi organisation, which also added Johnson to the four-car lineup. But Ganassi also took a gamble on Palou, who had spent one season driving for Dale Coyne Racing with one podium finish and one lap led all year.
He’d raced in Japan and Europe
Max Verstappen eased to victory in an incident-packed EmiliaRomagna Grand Prix as he comfortably beat Lewis Hamilton, who almost crashed out after a rare error from the world champion.
Hamilton hit a wall in a race that was also temporarily suspended following a separate incident involving his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas yesterday.
The 23-year-old Verstappen led
previously, and Ganassi warned Palou had been fast in preseason testing and would be a force this season.
‘‘We did some testing some testing over the winter and he was quick all day long at the tests, at one test he was quicker than Dixon,’’ Ganassi said.
‘‘So we knew the potential was for the majority of the race on the wet Imola track and the Red Bull driver beat Hamilton by 22 seconds for the 11th win of his career.
Verstappen almost threw victory away as he nearly lost control of his car during the restart after the red flag but recovered and gradually pulled away from the field out front.
‘‘I had my moment in the restart. That was a big one! But after that it was fine,’’ Verstappen said with a chuckle.
‘‘It’s a very long season so just
there, but you don’t know where you are relative to other teams.’’
Dixon felt it was a great day for his team.
‘‘Huge congrats to Alex to get the start they deserved,’’ Dixon, who had started fifth on the grid, said graciously.
‘‘My car felt really good. It was definitely a track position race, and
have to keep on working very hard. I’m very happy about the result today but tomorrow we start again ... It’s great to be fighting against Lewis and Mercedes who have been very dominant for so many years.’’
Hamilton, who won the seasonopening Bahrain GP last month, showed all his skills to make his way back up the field after falling as far back as ninth following the incident just before the halfway point of the race.
The 36-year-old Hamilton is still
we had a lot of pace, we just couldn’t go anywhere. You’ve got push to pass, but they have push to defend as well, and it got really tricky. But the team did a tremendous job, great points for us.’’
Three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden triggered an uncharacteristic opening lap crash that collected Colton Herta and Ryan Hunter-Reay, a pair of Andretti Autosport championship ahead of Verstappen in the standings after he picked up a bonus point for the fastest lap in Imola. Bottas had the fastest lap in Bahrain. Lando Norris was third, 23.7 behind Verstappen.
Hamilton damaged his front wing in a first incident but was running a comfortable second until he slid off the track, through the gravel and into the wall on lap 31. The British driver managed to return to the track eventually but had dropped to ninth before weaving his
contenders, as well as Felix Rosenqvist.
McLaughlin did well to avoid the carnage as he started 12th off the grid and almost instantly found himself in turmoil.
Rosenqvist, who briefly went airborne, also crashed in practice and had his qualifying lap disqualified, but was able to get his car back on track. Herta, Newgarden and Hunter-Reay were done without completing a single lap. way back into contention.
A short time later, Bottas and Williams driver George Russell were involved in a crash and the race was red-flagged on lap 34 with debris from their cars scattered across the track.
Both drivers were furious in the aftermath with Bottas flicking his middle finger at Russell, who responded by swatting the Finnish driver with his hand.
Next in the 23-race calendar is the Portuguese GP on May 2.
‘‘I got loose coming over the hill and then touched the grass. I think once I touched the grass I’m basically sideways,’’ said Newgarden, the two-time series champion who was runner-up last season.
‘‘I feel really bad for anyone who got involved in that.’’
The championship rolls on to the street circuit of St Petersburg, Florida next weekend.