The Rahal Letterman Lanigan team stalwart had been at his wit’s end in Friday’s practice sessions when he was left baffled at how unstable his car was under braking. While several drivers suffered incidents and wall-strikes while wrestling with brake issues, strong tailwinds and the slippery new track surface between Turns 3 and 4, Rahal seemed to suffer more than most, and it was commendable that aside from a couple of trips into escape roads, his car suffered no serious damage.
However the RLL team changed the #15 car's brakes and setup in time for qualifying, and while lining up 20th out of 27 appears underwhelming, he was actually encouraged on Saturday by the car now generating confidence for its driver.
“We ended up 10th in our [Q1 Group 2] session, which was way more compact than Group 1,” said Rahal. “Actually we made a lot of progress, the car was a lot more consistent. Yesterday I complained about the brakes, and we just changed them for qualifying and the car was night and day and that hampered our session too.
“It may not look like it, but the truth of the matter is, I think we made some great progress… Up until this session I was totally lost. I think that we’re on the right path and that we can make a pretty good, pretty-consistent racecar out of it. The tire degradation on these green tires is going to be tremendous and so if we can find a way to make those last, we can use strategy to our advantage a little bit here, and if so, I think that we will be OK.”
Come the race, Rahal avoided the skirmishes and carnage around him and moved into the top 10. On Lap 98 of the 100-lap race and with the recovering Will Power right behind him, Rahal pressured Alex Palou into a mistake which allowed both he and Power to demote the 2021 champion.
“We went from P20 up to P6. I was able to pass some guys today, force some guys into mistakes,” he said. “I thought our strategy was solid starting on those blacks [Firestone primaries] and we were able to keep the [alternates] underneath us.
“Obviously, there was a lot of yellows in that period as well but it still it worked for us with a strong black run to the finish. It was rewarding because when we had guys like Power behind me and others, we were able to fend them off and didn't feel under too much pressure. The guys did a great job.”
One of his team-mates, Christian Lundgaard started 11th and finished ninth, describing the race as a “long and tough one with a lot of yellows and quite frustrating. We seemed to struggle a bit with getting the tires to work so every restart was just misery and survival.
“But, I think we need to be happy to have two cars in the top 10… We got some points, but it was a tough race. Just before the race, the drink system broke so I didn't have that during the race. We struggled with some brakes and some gearshifts so it's good to get points and get the car over the line.
"We saw a couple of laps to the end one of the cars retire with a mechanical failure so that's good for us. I think the pace was really good towards the end so we've got to look at the positives but overall I don't think we're quick enough yet. We've got some work to do.”
RLL’s third driver, Jack Harvey, was unlucky to be eliminated from the race when he was left with nowhere to go at Turn 4 after Rinus VeeKay struck the tire wall ahead of him. After ramming the Ed Carpenter Racing machine, Harvey was then hit from behind by Kyle Kirkwood, which sent the Andretti Autosport car over the RLL machine.
Harvey was sent to a local hospital for a checkover on his arms, although he was released, and today reported that his right wrist was still stiff but better, while his left forearm was much better.
