Colton Herta, Andretti, Indianapolis Grand Prix, 2022

Herta triumphs in incident-packed wet Indianapolis Grand Prix

IndyCar

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Colton Herta navigated all manner of changing weather conditions and seven full-course cautions to win a chaotic 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis from 14th on the starting grid, while Will Power took the championship lead heading into the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500.

It was IndyCar’s first wet race for three years, since when the series introduced its Aeroscreen. Immediately, there was action at the front of the field: In a fantastic sequence of opening laps, Álex Palou took the lead from pole-winner Will Power, then Pato O’Ward passed Palou just a few corners later to lead the first lap. Colton Herta, who started 14th, took a risk and pitted for slick tyres after just two laps. The strategy paid dividends as he eventually rejoined behind O’Ward.

After nearly crashing at turn eight, Herta wrestled control of his Andretti on full opposite lock, then ripped around the outside of O’Ward, and moved into the lead once the rest of the field pitted on lap five. This would, in hindsight, be the most adversity Herta faced as he went on to lead 50 out of 75 laps that were completed on the day.

The race ran to its maximum two hour time limit thanks to multiple full-course cautions and heavy rainfall late in the race. The first caution came on lap six when Palou spun off and stopped at turn ten. On lap 16, Josef Newgarden was contesting fifth place against Takuma Sato – after being overtaken, he was caught between Alexander Rossi and Jack Harvey. Harvey turned Newgarden around, sending the Penske spinning around. Newgarden would finish 15 laps down in 25th place.

Racing resumed on lap 21, but made it only three corners before the caution flags were waved again: 2021 Indy GP winner Rinus VeeKay was pushed off course, and slid right into the path of rookie Devlin DeFrancesco who collided with VeeKay. A spin for Dalton Kellett at turn six brought out the fourth full course caution. Marcus Ericsson, who’d pitted back on lap 18 during the second caution, moved to the lead of the race after starting 18th. With rain beginning to fall once again, Palou and Alexander Rossi pitted for wet tyres.

But just one corner into the restart on lap 42, O’Ward and Herta brushed wheels going into turn one, sending O’Ward spinning right into the path of Rosenqvist. The two McLarens hit, and Sato also spun off through turns one and two. The caution came out once again, just as the race hit half-distance. On the ensuing restart at lap 46, Ericsson let team mate Dixon through to unlap himself. Herta, who restarted from second position, took the lead at turn four. Ericsson would freefall down the order, while Herta would build his lead over second-placed Scott McLaughlin, who stood to take the lead in the championship as they ran.

While contesting third place, Jack Harvey and Romain Grosjean made contact into turn seven, sending Grosjean spinning off and down the order. Simon Pagenaud, who started 20th, was now in third place, but on lap 57, O’Ward overtook Pagenaud to retake third position, just before Jimmie Johnson spun off to bring out the sixth caution – erasing Herta’s lead.

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In a defining caution period, the rain began to fall harder. At first, the leaders pitted for another set of slick tyres, but as multiple cars lost control under the safety car, Herta, Pagenaud, and Power elected to come back in for wet tyres Meanwhile, McLaughlin, O’Ward, and Grosjean remained out on track on slicks, but McLaughlin – who’d initially beaten Herta out of the pits on lap 59 – spun out of the lead under yellow, and Grosjean spun down the order as well.

With fifteen minutes left in what was now a timed race, Herta wasted no time retaking the lead on the ensuing restart. He easily took the lead going into turn one as O’Ward suffered for grip on his slick tyres. McLaughlin had no grip at all when he spun through turn three, bringing out a seventh caution of the race. Under the caution, O’Ward spun out under the safety car. The trio of O’Ward, McLaughlin, and Grosjean would have to pit after the final restart, and they dropped down to 17th, 18th, and 19th at the end of the race.

A perfect restart from Herta allowed him to break away from Pagenaud and the field behind him. He was several seconds per lap quicker than the field, allowing him to pull away even after a brief off-course excursion at turn twelve.

The race effectively ended when Juan Pablo Montoya crashed out from seventh in the final two minutes. Montoya was uninjured, but disappointed after losing out on a top ten finish in his return to IndyCar.

Herta took the chequered flag after completing 75 of 85 laps, finally scoring his first win of the season and atoning for his collapse in the Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was Honda’s first win of the season as an engine supplier.

Pagenaud scored his first podium as a Meyer Shank Racing driver in second. And with his fifth top-four finish of the season, Power took the championship lead on 138 points – Penske’s trio of Power, McLaughlin, and Newgarden now occupy the top three in the table in order going into next week’s time trials for the Indy 500.

Ericsson surged back into the top ten after his initial freefall, and finished a strong fourth place, ahead of Conor Daly in fifth, who recorded his best finish since the 2017 Gateway 500k. Rosenqvist recovered from his run-in with O’Ward and salvaged a sixth place finish – ahead of Takuma Sato, in seventh.

Rookie Callum Ilott and Juncos Hollinger Racing scored their best-ever finishes for driver and team, finishing eighth. But at the chequered flag, Ilott was hit from behind by Christian Lundgaard, whose damaged car came across the line in ninth. Ilott and Lundgaard did not suffer any serious injuries.

Scott Dixon – who ran out of fuel heading into the pits earlier in the race – finished in tenth. Also, Tatiana Calderón finished a career-best 15th place and became the first woman to lead a lap in IndyCar since Simona de Silvestro at the 2011 Baltimore Grand Prix.

Practice for the Indianapolis 500 begins Tuesday at 14:00 BST, with time trials taking place on 21-22 May.

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Grand Prix of Indianapolis results

PositionCarDriverTeamEngine
126Colton HertaAndrettiHonda
260Simon PagenaudMeyer ShankHonda
312Will PowerPenskeChevrolet
48Marcus EricssonGanassiHonda
520Conor DalyCarpenterChevrolet
67Felix RosenqvistMcLaren SPChevrolet
751Takuma SatoCoyne/RWRHonda
977Callum IlottJuncos HollingerChevrolet
930Christian LundgaardRLLHonda
109Scott DixonGanassiHonda
1127Alexander RossiAndrettiHonda
1218David MalukasCoyne/HMDHonda
1345Jack HarveyRLLHonda
146Helio CastronevesMeyer ShankHonda
1511Tatiana CalderonFoytChevrolet
1615Graham RahalRLLHonda
175Pato O’WardMcLaren SPChevrolet
183Scott McLaughlinPenskeChevrolet
1928Romain GrosjeanAndrettiHonda
2010Alex PalouGanassiHonda
2129Devlin DeFrancescoAndretti SteinbrennerHonda
2248Jimmie JohnsonGanassiHonda
2321Rinus VeeKayCarpenterChevrolet
2466Juan Pablo MontoyaMcLaren SPChevrolet
252Josef NewgardenPenskeChevrolet
2614Kyle KirkwoodFoytChevrolet
274Dalton KellettFoytChevrolet

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Author information

RJ O'Connell
Motorsport has been a lifelong interest for RJ, both virtual and ‘in the carbon’, since childhood. RJ picked up motorsports writing as a hobby...

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14 comments on “Herta triumphs in incident-packed wet Indianapolis Grand Prix”

  1. McLaren had the same strategy Team from the last Russian GP

  2. CD (@clipperdael)
    15th May 2022, 8:33

    That race was insane to point of becoming too insane. Also some of the FCY’s could have been shorter, the two near the end in particular. Still a very fun race to watch.
    Now on to the oval!

  3. I thought I’d give the race a watch. It was pretty mental. I felt sorry for Pato, he made a great recovery after spinning and slipping down to 11th and could have still won the race had they chosen the correct tyre at the end.

  4. Just a suggestion, please include the championship standings at the bottom of these articles. That would be helpful for us casual followers.

  5. RandomMallard
    15th May 2022, 12:14

    That was one of the craziest races I’ve seen in years. Bit of an interesting set-up trying to watch Indy on the TV and Eurovision on my phone (which is completely unprecedented for me, I never really pay attention to Eurovision) at the same time, but was definitely not worth missing either in the end!

  6. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    15th May 2022, 12:16

    This was just automobile comedy

    1. Car racing is not your thing I see.

  7. Right, I’m off to watch the highlights of this, sounds great.

  8. Bad team call not to put MacLachlan on wets he was running second he would of had a champion lead

  9. I’ve been watching racing in various series for 35 years and that lap 4 save by Herta was one of the best I’ve ever seen. His instinctive car control was astonishing.

    1. Indeed, Colton impressed me with one at what I think was the exit of the final corner (or the previous right hand turn) as well.

    2. It was pretty good. I don’t watch a ton of Motorsport outside of F1, but Kobayashi 130r and Perez Raidillon are a couple of my fav saves.

  10. This was one where Indy can learn form F1…. this race was total chaos.

    – Drivers going from wet, to slick to wet back to slick again in just 5 minutes, not once, but several times….
    – Full Course Yellows lasting longer than actual racing laps…when does the SC go round for minutes and minutes while the track is clear?
    – Far too much wheel banging with random penalties as a result
    – Closed pitlane while cars are damaged, when they get in anyways they recieve drive through penalties… where’s the logic in this?
    – Car slipping of track under SC did get back in original position (??)
    – The really fat pit crew and officials….. they look far from sportmen

    Moment of the race was Herta’s save, reminded me of Verstappen in Brazil 2016, Verstappen had a similar slide (and save) in his very first F1 test, age 16… YT it. As a whole too much chaos with far too long FCY periods.

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