IndyCar: Ericsson won the race, Grosjean finished 2nd

      Two former Formula 1 drivers today stepped onto the podium following the IndyCar race – the last time this happened was in 2022, when Marcus Ericsson finished in 2nd place and Alex Rossi in 3rd at the Road America track.

      But today, the Swedish driver from the Andretti team won on the new track in the Canadian city of Markham, while another Formula 1 veteran, 40-year-old Romain Grosjean, took 2nd place, racing this season for Dale Coyne Racing.

      The Canadian track posed challenging tasks for the IndyCar drivers, and not everyone managed to cope with them. We reported on Mick Schumacher's crash, but he was not the only one who couldn't reach the finish line. At various stages of the race, far more experienced guys dropped out of contention – in total, there were seven such unfortunate drivers.

      However, Grosjean and Ericsson raced brilliantly – Romain led for many laps, aided by the correct strategy chosen by his team. The same can be said for Marcus, who made his last pit stop quite late, received a set of soft tires, and overtook a dozen competitors one after another, including Alex Palou.

      The reigning series champion closely pursued the leading Grosjean, visibly reducing the gap, but after making a mistake and struggling to keep his car on the track, he decided not to take risks. His championship lead is so large that he can easily afford to let those who need it more win. For example, Ericsson, who calmly overtook the Spanish driver from Chip Ganassi Racing just a few laps before the finish, and then also passed Grosjean.

      In general, the final stage of the Canadian race was reminiscent of a thriller, with a conclusion that was hard to predict, and the balance of power was determined only at the very end.

      Since Marcus managed to break a winless streak that lasted 63 races, his joy was all the more exuberant: “It took quite a while, but today’s success wasn’t a particular surprise. This year is going well; we are getting stronger with each weekend and showing strong results in every qualifying session.

      Perhaps we haven’t achieved the results we deserved every weekend, but today’s success is definitely well-deserved. I think we had the fastest car all day, and since the race was interrupted several times by yellow flags, we had to stretch the stint before the last pit stop.

      And when we returned to the track in 7th position, I was able to maintain a good pace and went very fast, but I had to work hard to get through the pack and catch up with the leaders. I knew I could win this race.”

      Romain Grosjean missed out on victory, and although he was a bit disappointed, he commented on the race results with a smile on his face: “We did everything we could. I wanted to hold off Alex Palou and knew I was safe since I was a couple of seconds ahead. But then Marcus Ericsson caught up with me… Unfortunately, today was not our day, but we will try to win next time.”