If there is something that cannot be said about palou is that he is a pilot who throws in the towel soon. Otherwise. In difficult situations he brings out the best he has and goes for it all. The one on Sunday, climbing from the 18th starting place to the sixth finish, It is another of the comebacks that the Spanish leaves in the Indy. Of those that give magnificent points with their sights set on revalidating the 2021 title.
With a position as far back as the ninth row of the grid you had to look for good parts of the options in the strategy and in a solid rhythm. And in being lucky with the yellow flags, the one that condemned Palou in the 500 Miles. So it was. Palou started with the hard tires, lengthening his first stop as much as possible, getting rid of riders who touched the wall (Rahal) or those who started with reds and suffered in a calm start without any yellow flags.
The first stint fulfilled part of the plan, leaving Palou behind Power and Dixonboth Ganassi with those soft ones that were destroyed in a few laps. It was time for a yellow and not to suffer more than necessary with the red ones with the soft ballast or take care of them to infinity to only return once to the garage. And that Palou with 26 laps to go, which left him in sixth position and real when everyone equalized in stops. The rest would have to be earned on the track. The business had not gone out, twelve positions gained in a bumpy urban circuit.
You didn’t look to victory anymore by then, Will Power he was the best candidate, despite a bad last stop and having to deal with the reds and against the pace behind Rossi, Dixon, Newgarden, O’Ward and the Spaniard. He held out until victory lane Power, new championship leader ahead of Ericsson, O’Ward and Palou. The Barcelona native arrived in Detroit third, 14 points behind the leader, Ganassi’s Swede. And he goes fourth, at the same distance. With a bad classification in between.