IndyCar: Christian Lundgaard secured victory for McLaren

      Christian Lundgaard, a former member of the Renault/Alpine academy, whom we remember from Formula 2, where he often stood on the podium and won races, triumphed in a race held at the legendary Indianapolis racetrack. But not on the oval, rather on a road course configuration similar to the one that hosted the US Grand Prix from 2000 to 2007.

      However, the race that the 24-year-old Dane, who is competing for Arrow McLaren for the second season, won was also called a Grand Prix, but those are just details. The main point is that Christian, who qualified fourth, crossed the finish line first, ahead of his nearest competitor by almost five seconds.

      David Malukas, a Team Penske driver, took second place, while Graham Rahal, the experienced teammate of Mick Schumacher at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, finished third.

      Everyone is already accustomed to Alex Palou's achievements in IndyCar; he once again started from pole and led for the first 23 laps, but then his Chip Ganassi Racing team made an unusual mistake and did not call their driver in for a pit stop when yellow flags appeared on the track, but not throughout the entire lap, only in a specific section.

      Palou stayed on the track when Lundgaard and Malukas turned into the pit lane. Alex went for a refuel and tire change two laps later, when yellow flags were displayed across the entire track, but the peloton was already led by Malukas, and Lundgaard had moved up to second position. After this episode, Palou found himself at the very back.

      Christian took decisive action on lap 67, and the maneuver that allowed him to overtake David Malukas has already been dubbed the "Overtake of the Year," as he took the lead and drove the race to victory. He became the best among Arrow McLaren drivers and climbed to fourth place in the personal standings.

      Palou still leads, having managed to minimize his losses – due to the team's mistake, he dropped to the last position but finished fifth.

      One of the first to congratulate Christian Lundgaard and his team, which acted decisively and executed the strategy excellently, was Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing: "An amazing overtake that brought Christian his first win behind the wheel of a McLaren! He drove the entire race brilliantly from start to finish. The whole team did a fantastic job! The next challenge is to try to get the milk at the Indy 500!"

      Just to remind, according to a long-standing tradition, which turns 70 years old this year, the winner of the Indy 500 receives a special glass bottle of milk with a volume of one pint during the awards ceremony, provided by Prairie Farms.

      Mick Schumacher could have finished in 12th place, which would have been a respectable result for a rookie, but when battling with Santino Ferrucci, he overdid it and sent the AJ Foyt Racing driver into a spin, for which he received a penalty for a drive-through and ultimately finished twentieth.