It was a bold move by three-time Australian Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin when he moved up to the Indycar series in the United States last year.
Entering his second full season, the Kiwi’s gamble was vindicated by a near-perfect performance in the season opener on the streets of St Petersburg, Florida.
McLaughlin took pole position, then fended off a late challenge from defending champion Álex Palou to take his first victory in an open-wheel single-seater.
McLaughlin didn’t lead all the way, however, as many players in the bottom half of the field tried an alternate three-stop strategy from the top two. The leaders came to a halt under the only cautionary period of the 100-lap race, but once all three stops were through their pit visits, McLaughlin was back in front with 21 laps to go.
Spaniard Palou had come out of his second hard stop on McLaughlin’s tail but couldn’t quite move to steal the win as the sophomore picked up another victory in 2022 for Penske, just a week after he ‘Austin Cindric conquered Nascar’s Daytona 500 for America’s greatest racing team.
Big names in motorsport: Wayne Rainey
We’re branching out into the world of two-wheelers this week, and for good reason. Californian Wayne Rainey was well on his way to motorcycling immortality when he won three consecutive 500cc world titles for Yamaha between 1990 and 1992 – only to prove too human when he was launched at the Italian Grand Prix in Misano in 1993.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-03-11 00:01:23
