He loses a triumph, but he is more of a leader

Normally, the winner’s trophy of the IndyGP 2026 should have been named after Alex Palou. But on this occasion a strange move of fatein the form of a controversial career direction decisionprevented it. And it had to be a circumstance of that type because the Spanish was, by far, the fastest on the road in Indianapolis this weekend.

In fact, He was leading the race around lap 22. -in the middle of the stop window- when the Carpenter of Alexander Rossi stopped in the middle of the straight of goal. It was a very clear yellow flag throughout the track due to the delicate situation, but instead They only signaled local yellow in that area… before the protests of Rossi himself, who had to get out of his car with single-seaters passing by him at more than 300 km/h.

Most likely IndyCar – as it has done on other occasions – decided hold on with the local yellow to keep the pits open and the front runners to enter…and that’s what Malukas, Lundgaard and Rahal did. But Palou and Kirkwood do not (in what seems clear to be an error on the part of their teams). They lost that margin that gave them career direction and when They took out the CautionThey condemned the Spaniard and the American to the tail of the pack (they had to wait for the pack to group together to have the pit lane open and be able to make the change).

Goodbye to the chances of victory… but for the two main contenders for the title, a new race to comeback. They had two thirds of the race ahead of them to recover positions. AND Kirkwood began the work recovering like a man possessedwhile Palou -with hard wheels- stayed stuck in traffic.

And there came a Ganassi key movewho decided stop Spanish earlyput the new soft ones on him and take him out into clean air so he could set his pace. It was almost his only option but That play also became Kirkwood’s gravewho made the mistake of copying the Spaniard’s tactics… and that was the end of him.

Because the stop was a disaster (again) and that made him lose position with the Spanish. Furthermore, while Palou climbed positions like a beastKirkwood had a much harder time. He could not keep up with the Spaniard, who climbed to the fifth place, not bad taking into account the panorama that was found with the flags… and even better seeing that Andretti’s did not go beyond ninth place. Now they separate them 27 points.

Lundgaard-Malukas Duel

Ahead, the fight for victory It was intense. At least until Lundgaard took his side in the duel with Malukas. Two pilots who still they had not achieved a victory in IndyCar with their current teams and that with Palou out of the game they had a golden opportunity.

The Dane won it on the track with a spectacular overtaking after rolling wheel to wheel for several seconds with the one from Chicago, but before Penske had perhaps taken too long to introduce his jewel to make the last stop. And that cost him quite dearly.

The next IndyCar event It will be nothing less than the greatest race in the world: the Indianapolis 500. Although the race will be held on Sunday May 24preparation will begin… next Tuesday with the first practice. The free periods will last until Friday and Saturday and Sundaythe first big moment with the Indy 500 standings.