Christian Lundgaard stuns David Malukas with bold pass to win at Indianapolis

The Race

Palou, starting on the harder primary tire compound, led the field to the green flag but the slow start led to contact in the back, with Rinus VeeKay suffering wing damage. Then, in Turn 1, multiple cars came together, including second-place starter Pato O’Ward, who was clipped by Felix Rosenqvist. The likes of rookie Caio Collet and six-time series champion Dixon were also collected with significant damage.

The new running order following the incident was Palou, Malukas, Rahal, Kirkwood, and Romain Grosjean. Meanwhile, Rosenqvist and VeeKay came to a closed pit lane for service and were hit with a penalty and required to restart at the back of the field. Rosenqvist was also deemed at fault for the opening corner crash by Race Control and handed a drive-thru penalty.

The pits finally opened on Lap 4 of 85, with Collet, Dixon, O’Ward and Rosenqvist, again,  among those that came in for service.

The restart came out on Lap 5, with Palou leading a calmer run into Turn 1 as the field filled in behind. ECR’s Christian Rasmussen ended up off course in Turn 7 after contact and eventually brought it back to the pits and went behind the wall.

Kirkwood, who started seventh, propelled up to second after a brilliant pass on Malukas on the inside of Turn 1 on Lap 7.

Race Control also handed a penalty to Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin for blocking and was forced to give up three track positions as a result, relegating back to 14th by Lap 10. He also appeared to have an issue with the right side of his front wing.

Palou led Kirkwood by 2.2034s after 10 laps.

Dixon opted to go off-sequence and pitted on Lap 16, while McLaughlin was among those coming in the next lap and taking a front wing change.

O’Ward pitted on Lap 19, along with teammate Nolan Siegel, Dennis Hauger and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.

The local caution came out on Lap 21 after ECR’s Alexander Rossi stopped on the frontstretch. He excited the car despite the lack of a full course caution, which was finally called moments after he got out and jumped over the wall to pit lane.

Palou and Kirkwood came down to pit lane for service on Lap 25, handing the lead to Will Power, with Malukas in second. Palou and Kirkwood returned 19th and 20th, respectively.

Power led the field to the restart on Lap 27, holding Malukas at bay as Lundgaard got around Rahal.

A big crash on Lap 28 saw Sting Ray Robb make contact with an Arrow McLaren car into Turn 13, leaving Kyffin Simpson trying to avoid the contact but was then hit by Rosenqvist, who ramped over the front wing and caught brief air. Rosenqivst retired from the race as a result of the contact.

Power, meanwhile, pitted on Lap 31, handing Malukas the lead.

Rasmussen returned to pit lane to try and go back out on Lap 32.

Malukas led the field to the green flag on Lap 33, with Lundgaard and Rahal behind.

The lead for Malukas expanded to 1.1s over Lundgaard by Lap 39, while Palou dove to pit lane and took on a fresh set of softer alternates. Kirkwood dove to pit lane from seventh the following lap but an issue with the right-front hampered his stop and ended up dropping behind Palou on track.

Malukas continued to lead after 45 laps, with a gap of 1.7s over Lundgaard and 4.3s over Rahal in third.

Rahal pitted from third on Lap 47 and took on a used set of softer alternates. Newgarden also pitted at the same time and took on softer alternates, too.

Malukas pitted the next lap from the lead, but called over the radio for a suspected engine issue. However, he took on a used set of softer alternates and returned to the fight. Lundgaard pitted from the lead on Lap 49, followed by Foster, with the former taking on used alternates.

Power cycled back to the lead, with a 7s gap over O’Ward and 9.4s over Simpson. Malukas returned in fourth, ahead of Lundgaard.

Power extended his lead to 7.8s by Lap 54, but it was Malukas in second now, with Lundgaard in third and Rahal in fourth, as O’Ward slid to fifth.

Power took to pit lane on Lap 59 and put on a set of alternates, handing the lead to Malukas. Power came back out 15th, but was hit with a drive thru penalty by Race Control for an improper pit exit for when he crossed the blend line early.

Palou pitted on Lap 63 from fifth. Foster pitted from fourth on Lap 65.

Lundgaard dove to pit lane on Lap 66 from second, followed by Rahal in third.

With 20 laps to go, Malukas dove to pit lane and took on a fresh set of alternate tires.

Malukas, with a 7.1s stop, came out ahead of Lundgaard by 1.3s, with Rahal a staggering 6.1s back in third.

Lundgaard got a massive run out of Turn 14 and closed on the rear wing of Malukas and went to the outside in Turn 2 as they went side-by-side, with the former taking the lead on the exit of Turn 4 with 18 laps to go.

Meanwhile, Marcus Ericsson’s #28 Andretti Global Honda was being pushed behind the wall with an apparent mechanical issue with 17 laps to go.

Lundgaard’s lead widened to 2.5s over Malukas with 13 laps to go.

With six laps to go, Lundgaard’s lead over Malukas expanded to 3.4s, with Rahal 4.5s behind.

Rookie Mick Schumacher broke late into Turn 7 while fighting with Santino Ferrucci, but then got into the back of him into Turn 9 and punted him off track with three laps to go. Schumacher was handed a drive-thru penalty for avoidable contact as a result.

Lundgaard went on to comfortably win, ahead of Malukas and Rahal.

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