Rossi’s rally brings relief, move into top 10
Alexander Rossi couldn’t keep a smile off his face.
The Andretti Autosport driver, 25, simply couldn’t contain his satisfaction after a welcome but unexpected finish Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park following a weekend that seemed to promise doom.
After starting Sunday’s Grand Prix of Alabama 18th, Rossi steadily made his way through the Verizon IndyCar Series field and finished fifth. His 13-spot climb was the best of the day, as he claimed his first top-five finish since last year’s series-ending race at Sonoma Raceway.
“When you have Saturdays like we did,” Rossi said, “to come away with a top-five is big. But you just have to believe.”
Except no one would have blamed Rossi for losing faith.
His problems began Friday afternoon. Coming off an encourag- ing first practice session in which he was fifth quickest and the top Honda in the field, the defending Indianapolis 500 champion looked to be on the verge of a third consecutive start in the top 10.
Instead, Rossi and the No. 98 Honda took a huge step backward in the second practice session Friday evening, finishing 14th quickest and being among the only setups to post a top speed slower in Session 2 than in Session 1.
Rossi initially attributed the lapse to brake issues and took solace that teammate Marco Andretti finished P1, saying they would compare data and make improvements.
However, whatever fixes they made resulted in Rossi slipping further back, as his pace in Satur- day’s practice session was good enough for just 17th.
A few hours later, Rossi failed to advance out of the first stage of qualifying and was relegated to a back-of-the-pack start for the third race of the season.
“I was super disappointed with how things went (Saturday),” Rossi told The Indianapolis Star after Sunday’s race. “My engineer and I were on desperation lane in terms of our disappointment.”
The biggest issue, Rossi said, was they didn’t know precisely what their issues were. Heading into Sunday, all he and his team could do was take “an educated guess” on a fix.
“I knew the lap time was better,” Rossi said. “I don’t know that we solved the problem completely, but the lap time was a step up (Sunday). So I knew if we played our cards right and had good pit stops and everything, we could probably have a top-eight. So to get a top-five is just great.”
For Rossi, now 10th in points, the finish allowed him a brief moment of relief. Although he has plenty of work ahead of him to catch the points leaders, to bounce back with a top-five after a frustrating 19th-place finish at Long Beach was a much-needed confidence boost.
“We’re in the top 10,” Rossi said. “Now it’s just about building on that. We know we can win races; we just have to make sure we don’t make a mistake in qualifying again.”
Next up for Rossi and the rest of the series is the Phoenix Grand Prix (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).
At the mention of Phoenix, Rossi’s smile becomes more of a knowing smirk. That’s because the desert oval hasn’t been too kind to Rossi in his young career. He finished 14th in his debut there last year and spun out and crashed during preseason testing in February.
“Like (Barber), it’s not our best track,” Rossi said. “But if we can come away with a top-five again heading into the month of May, that would be great.”