O’Ward “on wrong strategy… That’s the roll of the dice”

The Arrow McLaren driver passed Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou on the opening lap before falling back behind him a few corners later, and then he concentrated on conserving fuel. He stopped a lap before Palou, a fellow two-stopper, and got ahead of him but he couldn’t find a way around Romain Grosjean, because three-stopping David Malukas was between them.

Then when the race’s only caution came out, eventual winner Scott McLaughlin came out of his second pitstop in second place. While Grosjean and McLaughlin pulled a 10sec gap on O’Ward, his attention in his middle stint was fully occupied with holding off Palou, Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan and Scott Dixon (Ganassi). With his pace limited as a two-stopper, O’Ward then lost out to the three-stopping Will Power in another Penske.