McLaughlin and Rovanpera win in IndyCar and WRC

McLaughlin keeps Penske smiling

A week after Austin Cindric gifted Roger Penske a perfect 85^th birthday present by winning the Daytona 500, this Sunday it was The Captain’s Kiwi IndyCar sophomore who kept the celebrations going. Three-time Australian V8 Supercar champion Scott McLaughlin made the gutsy full-time switch to America’s premier single-seater category just last year, with mixed results. Hardly a surprise on that. But first time out of the gate this season he put in a near-perfect performance by taking pole position and beating reigning champion Alex Palou in a nail-biting race to the finish of the intense 100-lapper around the streets of St Pete.

“Thank you to Roger Penske,” an overwhelmed McLaughlin said after jumping from his car – and falling over! “What a day. I’m out of breath. We did it. Can’t believe it.”

McLaughlin didn’t lead all the way, but only because a bunch of lower qualifiers chose a three-stop strategy over the optimum two. That meant the 28-year-old had to bide his time as the pit stops cycled through. But having led the opening stages comfortably, he just beat Palou out of the pits from his second stop, which meant he hit the front once again when the last of the three-stoppers, Scott Dixon, headed in with 21 laps to go.

A champion’s drive from Palou

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Palou only started down in 10^th, but shot up into contention with a fine first stint and a terrific first pitstop from his crew, as the frontrunners all hit pit road during the one and only safety car period of the race. That was a surprise in itself. The tight confines of the 1.8-mile track usually trigger plenty of mistakes and shunts when IndyCar comes to visit, but this time only rookie David Malukas hit the wall, on his debut with Dale Coyne’s team on lap 25. Once the pit road opened, the leaders all streamed in leaving the three-stoppers to lead the field as they had already made their first visit. Palou made it back out a net third behind McLaughlin and Rinus Veekay, which set him up for his strong push to the finish. Not bad given the sizable front-on impact he suffered in practice.

Palou closed in on McLaughlin in the final stages, aided partly by team-mate Jimmie Johnson briefly holding the leader up, but had to keep his eye on fuel consumption which stopped him giving it everything. McLaughlin kept his cool in the closing stages, but Palou was delighted with his day’s work and what marked a strong start to his title defence.

Power completes the podium

Will Power completed a strong day for Penske with third place, slipping from his second spot on the grid. The Australian was the only one of the top 10 starters to begin on the harder prime Firestone tyres and he lost out at the start to Colton Herta. Third was a decent recovery from a strategy that didn’t really work for him.

Herta snatched fourth from Veekay in the closing stages, with Romain Grosjean also making up a place to finish fifth – the same position he started in on his first start for Michael Andretti’s team. The Frenchman was in the frame all weekend as he chases his first IndyCar win. Veekay completed the top six, ahead of Graham Rahal and the best of the three-stoppers, Dixon. IndyCar’s next stop will be the Texas superspeedway on 20^th March.

Rovanpera wins comfortably in Sweden

Over in the snows of Sweden, Kalle Rovanpera scored what was finally a comfortable third career win in the WRC as he beat Thierry Neuville by 22 seconds.

The win marked Toyota’s first in the new Rally1 hybrid era, making up for the disappointment of Sébastien Ogier’s defeat to Sébastien Loeb last time out in Monte Carlo. The two veteran ‘big beasts’ were absent this time, as Rovanpera proved the class of the field to win a rally on which his father Harri scored his only WRC success back in 2001.

“It doesn’t feel great to celebrate too much,” said Rovanpera on social media, with a maturity beyond his 21 years. “It’s been a really difficult week for people in Ukraine and I wish them all the strength and hope. It’s all I can do in this moment.”

Hyundai’s Neuville headed the way after a closely fought first day, but Rovanpera hit the front on the first stage of Saturday morning and engaged in a tight duel with team-mate Elfyn Evans. The Welshman looked to be the only driver in with a shot of beating the Finn, until an error on the final stage of Saturday slapped him with a 10-second penalty. Evans then crashed on the opening stage of Sunday, then retired with a hybrid issue. As for Neuville, second marks a decent return for Hyundai after a troubled Monte Carlo Rally.

Disappointment for M-Sport

Esapekka Lappi scored a podium third on his return to the Toyota works team, with the other factory Yaris of Takamoto Katsuta fourth, completing a strong event for the Japanese car maker. Next up was Britain’s Gus Greensmith, who turned out to be the only of M-Sport’s trio to make the finish in his Ford Puma, having lost time on Friday with gearbox and hybrid issues. Team-mate Craig Breen crashed out on stage three, returned on Saturday only to suffer a technical glitch, but scored a point on the final Powerstage; and an electrical problem ended Adrien Fourmaux’s rally. All in all, a bit of let-down following Loeb’s landmark victory on the Monte. M-Sport must wait until 21^st-24^th April before it can bounce back, at Rally Croatia.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.