Power wins at Detroit with hardly any tires; Palou finishes sixth

Power wins from sixteenth position in a race where the red tires were decisive

Will Power has won in Detroit with a driving display, and the Australian has kept Alexander Rossi at bay in the last few laps despite being clearly inferior in terms of tires.

The Belle Isle circuit devoured the red compound, which went into free fall in just ten laps. But Power has finished the race with a run of 20 with that tire.

Somehow, in the fight for victory two riders have coincided who today have deployed opposing strategies: a Power who has linked two initial laps with hard to finish with soft, and a Rossi who has gotten rid of the soft following just four laps to attack then with the hard.

Rossi’s strategy was clearly the fastest, but Power held on and won the race by just a second. Had there been another turn, he would have fallen.

Alex Palou has come back from eighteenth to sixth position, although until his last stop he was fighting to be fourth.

The tires were one of the most determining factors in Detroit, as the demands of the track ate up the soft compound at a truly devilish speed.

The teams were not sure if this rubber might withstand a full stint and the truth is that it quickly proved that its performance plummeted in just regarding ten laps.

So much so that those who came out with hard ones made their way with amazing ease through the grid. One of them was Alex Palou, who went from eighteenth to third following his first stop.

The start was clean, although it had the peculiarity that the second half of the peloton had not yet been grouped properly when the green flag waved.

Josef Newgarden defended pole but Takuma Sato was less lucky and dropped from second to fourth to the benefit of Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves.

Alex Palou remained eighteenth, but it didn’t take him long to account for Santino Ferrucci.

The mystery regarding the red tires was cleared up even earlier than expected.

Several cars immediately brushed him off, and so Palou was already seventh by lap 10. From that point on, those still riding him suffered a dramatic drop in performance.

The big beneficiaries of this situation were Will Power, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, who rode in tandem on the hard compound.

Their progression was such that on lap 11 they noticed Helio Castroneves, who was third. And on lap 13 they also overtook Simon Pagenaud, who was second.

The red tire debacle also took its toll on race leader Josef Newgarden, who succumbed to hard-charging cars on lap 15.

Power took the helm of the race with Dixon and Palou on the podium, and together they began to break away from the group to definitively consolidate their assault on the positions of honor.

Newgarden held on in his used reds until lap 19, but by then he had lost so much time that he lost sight of the cars fighting for the win.

Power came in on lap 25 to ride a second set of hards, while Dixon and Palou pitted on lap 26 to put on reds for strategic freedom late in the contest.

After this first refuelling, Will Power was 4.4 seconds ahead of Dixon and 7.9 over Palou. The fourth was Alexander Rossi, who was going hard and was at 17.2.

History repeated itself once more, and so Dixon and Palou began to fall into Rossi’s clutches, helpless due to the degradation of the red tire they were equipped with.

Rossi passed Palou on lap 40 and on lap 43 he also passed Dixon to take second, just behind a Power who had yet to ride softs.

Palou pitted fourth and Dixon came in third a lap later, but Alex lost out as he dropped to sixth behind Newgarden and O’Ward. Scott remained third.

Power finally entered lap 50. He returned to the track as the leader, but with the obligation to complete 20 laps on the red tire without being hunted down by Rossi. He was 16 seconds ahead.

Seen what was seen, nothing suggested that Power might hold out until the end. But the Australian got it. Rossi tried to make it to the finish line, but fell just a second short of victory.

DETROIT RACE RESULTS 2022

POS.	PILOT	EQUIPMENT	WEATHER	V.
01.	W. Power	Team Penske	01:32’08″8183	70
02.	A. Rossi	Andretti Autosport	+1″0027	70
03.	S. Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+7″1239	70
04.	J. Newgarden	Team Penske	+10″6716	70
05.	P. O’Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	+11″2348	70
06.	A. Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	+14″9056	70
07.	M. Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+40″8996	70
08.	C.Herta	Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian	+41″1286	70
09.	S. Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	+41″2942	70
10.	F. Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	+42″8774	70
11.	D. Malukas	Dale Coyne with HMD	+45″8916	70
12.	C. Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	+51″1769	70
13.	T. Sato	Dale Coyne with RWR	+52″2162	70
14.	C. Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	+1’12″7763	70
15.	J. Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	+1’28″2411	70
16.	R. VeeKay	Ed Carpenter Racing	+1  vuelta	69
17.	R. Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	+1 vuelta	68
18.	D. DeFrancesco	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	+1 vuelta	68
19.	S. McLaughlin	Team Penske	+1 vuelta	68
20.	D. I had to	AJ Foyt Enterprises	+1 vuelta	68
21.	S. Ferrucci	Juncos Hollinger	+2 laps	68
22.	J. Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+2 laps	68
23.	T. Calderon	AJ Foyt Enterprises	+2 laps	68
24.	K. Kirkwood	AJ Foyt Enterprises	abandonment	49
25.	H. Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	abandonment	21
26.	G. Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	abandonment	2

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