ANDRETTI, PENSKE, ALONSO NOT LEADING FACTORS

Without 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi’s presence, the Andretti Autosport team would have been fairly anonymous last Sunday, despite its impressive pace in qualifying the previous weekend.

Marco Andretti had too much drag to remain up front but not enough grip to deal with turbulent air once he’d sunk down the order. Ryan Hunter-reay was fast enough but hit trouble on pitroad and only his aggressive driving salvaged a 10th place. Colton Herta was not fast enough to lead but just focused on being as strong as his car would allow and was rewarded with eighth. Zach Veach led 14 laps while running off-strategy but in truth was not a factor. James Hinchcliffe was a fine seventh after a couple of strong late restarts but this should have been a top-four had he not suffered a clutch issue earlier in the race.

Clutch issues also accounted for Fernando Alonso’s slow stops, and meant his Arrow Mclaren SP Dallara-chevy (below) needed a shove to get it moving after each stop, but oversteer had already starved him of pace and he finished a lap down. For the team it was therefore a blessing to see Pato O’ward survive the rigours of trying to keep pace with the Ganassi and Rahal Letterman machines and clock a fine sixth.

Penske fared little better, aside from

Josef Newgarden’s (above) brave stab at trying to beat Graham Rahal to a top-three finish. Newgarden’s off-strategy team-mates saw their dreams turn to ashes. Will Power got up to eighth with some strong restarts, but then fumbled one of them, sank to

12th and then blew a pitstop by hitting pit equipment. Simon Pagenaud had his front wing damaged by Hunter-reay, which sent him to the pits, while Helio Castroneves trailed Pagenaud and Power, but never looked like passing them.