Australia’s Will Power lost his IndyCar Series lead after a costly collision with New Zealand teammate Scott McLaughlin at the Monterey Grand Prix on Monday (AEST).
Power finished seventh at Leguna Seca in California after losing precious seconds at the lap 79 restart when McLaughlin made contact in an overeager bid to overtake for sixth.
Power dropped to 10th before staging a late recovery while Team Penske stablemate McLaughlin spun out and finished 21st after serving a penalty for the incident.
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Two time champion Alex Palou reclaimed the lead in the championship standings from Power by winning from pole position.
Power had held a five point lead over the Spaniard prior to the race and has now dropped to second and 23 points behind after eight of 17 events.
“A good recovery day. When you can make the most of those bad days it’s good stuff for the points,” Power said, reflecting on “a rollercoaster at the rollercoaster.”
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“It’s going to be a tight battle until the end so we’ll keep digging.”
Palou, now a two-time winner on the permanent road course, has finished on the podium in all four of his career starts at the track.
His win there in the 2022 season finale was believed to be the catalyst for him changing his mind to leave Chip Ganassi Racing for a move to Arrow McLaren Racing.
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It is the second win of the season for Palou, not counting his victory in the $1.5m million exhibition race in March.
Colton Herta finished second for Andretti Global and Alexander Rossi finished third to earn his first podium of the season – and only his second overall since joining Arrow McLaren.
Romain Grosjean was fourth in his best finish since joining Juncos Hollinger Racing this year.
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It was the best finish ever for a JHR driver.
Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti was fifth, followed by Scott Dixon of Ganassi and then Power.
It was an eventful Arrow McLaren debut for 19-year-old Nolan Siegel, who was just hired for the seat earlier this week.
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The youngest driver on the grid spun off the track and into the gravel to draw a full course caution on a restart midway through the race.
“Sorry about that. I’m really sorry,” he radioed.
He finished 12th.
Siegel is the third different driver in the No.6 this season as the ride was supposed to go to Palou, who changed his mind in a breach of contract dispute with McLaren.
The team then hired David Malukas, who broke his wrist in a mountain biking crash one month before the season opener.
After he missed the fourth race of the season, it triggered a clause in Malukas’ contract that allowed McLaren to fire him and the team finally settled on Siegel as his fulltime replacement this week.
Malukas, meanwhile, was hired by Meyer Shank Racing.
He made his season debut and finished 16th at Laguna Seca.
There had been questions about whether his fitness was sufficient to complete the 95 lap race.