Colton Herta dominates, Palou closes in on title, and Grosjean steals the headlines at Leguna Seca

Colton Herta did what Colton Herta usually does, dominating from pole position to take his sixth career victory at Leguna Seca.

Herta led the field cleanly ahead of Alexander Rossi, Will Power, and Alex Palou. However, on Lap Two, it was Rossi who tried to capitalise on a brief mistake by Herta, diving down the inside of Turn Two. The Andretti drivrt understeered into Herta and spun out into the gravel bringing out the first caution of the day. Meanwhile, Arrow McLaren SP driver Felix Rosenqvist spun but was able to return to the track and get racing again.

After the first lap, the championship leaders were in fourth (Palou), fifth (Dixon), sixth (O’Ward), and 17th (Newgarden).

Patricio O’Ward was one of the only front runners to start on the primary tyres and would finish fourth. Photo credit James Black.

The restart got underway on Lap Four as O’Ward, who started in sixth and had already lost out to Dixon, started to fall down the order. He was soon swallowed up by Marcus Ericsson and Simon Pagenaud as he continued his season-long struggle on the primary sticker blacks.

Will Power pitted on Lap Ten with an engine issue which kicked started the first stops for other drivers like O’Ward, who desperately needed track position. However, Josef Newgarden had pitted earlier and was able to jump O’Ward out of the pits.

Colton Herta would wait until Lap 19 before pitting, emerging out of the pits comfortably ahead of Alex Palou who had benefited from the misfortune of Rossi and Power. O’Ward would eventually pit again on Lap 40 while Herta would hold a 30 second lead over Palou. However, after both drivers pitted Palou was able to close up to within a second of the leader.

The two drivers eventually were caught in lapped traffic including Felix Rosenqvist , allowing third-place O’Ward to begin carving down the 20-second gap between himself and O’Ward. He would close the gap down to 16 seconds before pitting on Lap 67 alongside Alex Palou, the former losing out to Graham Rahal in the pitlane. Herta would come in on Lap 68 coming out ahead of both but behind Romain Grosjean who was still yet to pit.

With 15 laps remaining, Grosjean pitted for fresh reds and set about carving through the field on an electric final stint passing O’Ward for fourth place. Soon after he passed Rahal for the podium and set about reducing the gap to second-place Palou who was ten seconds ahead but came about on lapped traffic.

With seven laps remaining Grosjean had to overtake Chip Ganassi driver Jimmie Johnson who had been told to make the Dayle Coyne racer work for it. Romain went for an audacious lunge down the inside of the Corkscrew, a move he had pulled of succesfully mutiple times throughout the race. The two made contact as Johnson left little room on the inside but ultimately Romain would come out on top.

Herta would eventually go on to take victory with ease, having led for the most of the race. Palou would take second, with Grosjean third. Graham Rahal finished fourth while O’Ward would round out the top five..

Grosjean takes his third podium of the season while Chip Ganassi teammates Marcus Ericsson and Scott Dixon finished sixth and 13th respectively, officially ruling them out of the championship title race.

As we head into the final race of the season at Long Beach, we only have three drivers who are mathematically in with a chance of the title. Alex Palou holds a magnificent points lead with Patricio O’Ward trailing by 35 points and Josef Newgarden by 49. It will be a tough ask for the American Penske racer who requires a win, providing his competitors fail to finish the race.

Alex Palou is firmly in the driving seat and will win his first IndyCar championship providing he finishes 11th or better.

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