The inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham had an inauspicious start, as the street circuit wasn’t ready in time to start the weekend on Friday, but the race went off without a hitch Sunday afternoon, although several drivers might disagree.
The challenging track, which is wide enough for five cars in some sections, too tight for two in others and has a 180 degree hairpin, claimed several cars during the race. Among the unfortunate was pole-sitter Louis Foster, who hit Turn 3’s inside wall trying to pass Marcus Ericsson mid-race and drove head-on into the outside wall to end his day.
Twelve of 27 starters failed to complete the full race, which came down to a thrilling run to the finish over the final 20 laps as Romain Grosjean led the field ahead of points leader Alex Palou, Will Power, who started the race at the back of the field, and Ericsson.
Palou threatened for a few laps, but fell off of the pace and into the clutches of the Andretti Global teammates. Power looked set to pounce with nine laps to go as Ericsson elbowed his way by him in the hairpin, then set off to get by Palou.
Grosjean put up a valiant effort in search of his first IndyCar win, but Ericsson’s car was too fast and he made the pass for the lead on lap 86 of 90, he pulled away to a 7.5305-second gap as he took the checkered flag to end a 63-race winless streak.
“It’s been long enough,” Ericsson said afterward. “It doesn’t come as much of a surprise. We’ve had such a good year. We’ve been working every weekend, getting stronger and stronger, qualifying up front every weekend. We might not have got the results we deserved every weekend, but I really felt we deserved (this).”
Grosjean held on to second with Power joining him on the podium in third. Palou finished fourth to extend his lead at the top of the standings to 133 points over second place Kyle Kirkwood as the series heads to another debut race with the Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 23.
