Alex Palou fought off Will Power to increase his championship lead to over 50 points as new Detroit circuit provides classic Indycar street race drama and competition.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Spanish star drove faultlessly on the bumpy and unforgiving streets of the Motor City, strengthening his grip on the Indycar championship lead. He had to deal with multiple restarts and ferocious attacks from Team Penske’s Will Power, and did so with aplomb.

Behind Palou and Power came the Arrow McLaren driver of Felix Rosenqvist, who made a forceful move on team mate Alexander Rossi to end up on the podium in third. Scott Dixon then pounced on Rossi to finish fourth, as the frustrated Rossi had to settle for fifth.

Kyle Kirkwood recovered from a turn 3 crash on lap 1 which destroyed his entire rear wing assembly to finish 6th for Andretti Autosport, whilst Scott McLaughlin ended up in 7th. Rookie Marcus Armstrong was eighth, as Marcus Ericsson lost more ground to Palou in the championship by recovering to 9th. Reigning Indy500 winner Josef Newgarden found the chequered flag in 10th, just ahead of the Andretti cars Colton Herta and Devlin DeFrancesco.

Alex Palou proves why he is the pick of the Indycar field in 2023

The 2021 Indycar champion looks the strongest driver in the field this season, and seems to be heading to his second title with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2023. His victory this weekend in Detroit underlined this superiority.

Indycar has had on track action for four consecutive weeks heading into Detroit, and Alex Palou has been the star of all of them. He blasted his way to the GMR Grand Prix victory, before setting the fastest pole speed in Indianapolis 500 history in qualifying for the race. Lap 1 of that run was at an average of over 235 miles an hour.

In the Indianapolis 500, Palou looked to be on course to win, before he was taken out of contention by Rinus Veekay on lap 103. Palou dropped to 28th, only to drive his way back to 4th with controlled aggression and flawless race craft. Although he did not win the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500, his performance was almost perfect.

Detroit was no different – a dominant pole position was followed up by 100 laps of brilliance. He never looked out of control, using surgical-like precision to cut his way around the streets of Detroit to win his second race of the season.

Alex Palou has only finished outside of the top 5 once in 2023, and with a 51 point lead over Marcus Ericsson in the standings, it would be brave to bet against the Spaniard winning the Astor cup in September. Although anything can happen in Indycar, but Palou looks incredibly strong in 2023.

New Detroit circuit races better than expected, providing unique challenges

Heading into the weekend, some were sceptical about how good the new Detroit circuit would be for IndyCar racing, with drivers comparing it to the tight and unpredictable nature of Nashville’s street circuit. Many were expecting a crash fest.

However, whilst there were indeed seven caution periods and 32 laps of caution throughout the race, the circuit provided a good balance between long straights and tight corners. The split pit-lane seemed to be a success, providing an extra layer on intrigue throughout the race.

The only real issue with the circuit were the bumps. Although we had seen signs in practice of how difficult braking into turn 3 would be in the race, on lap 1, Callum Ilott hit a bump under braking, spearing him into the back and over the top of a helpless Kyle Kirkwood, ending the British driver’s day early.

Later in the race, the bumps would become so vicious that they would snap the wishbone of Romain Grosjean’s suspension, causing the Frenchman to crash out through no fault of his own. Although furious with himself, the team radioed Grosjean to assure him it was not his own fault, but a mechanical one.

McLaren go through rollercoaster weekend once more

After a tough Indianapolis 500, Arrow McLaren were hoping for better results in Detroit, and no driver was more motivated than Pato O’Ward. After crashing out with 7 laps to go at the Indianapolis 500, O’Ward was going to get his championship back on track in 2023.

The team had a strong qualifying, with all drivers making it through into the Firestone fast 12, and looking to move forward. However, after a botched pitstop O’Ward was almost a lap down, but then his race ended prematurely as he hit the wall in turn 9. He now slips down to fifth in the championship, desperately needing a good result to revive his season at Road America.

For Rossi and Rosenqvist, they were running strongly in the top 5 all race. However, at the penultimate restart, Rossi pulled off an awesome move to go from 5th to 2nd. At the final restart, Rossi was passed by Will Power, and then Rosenqvist took advantage of Rossi going wide to snatch the final podium position.

In a forceful move, Rosenqvist pushed Rossi very close to the outside wall at turn 3, in a move which left the American driver unimpressed. Post-race, Rossi said we ‘will discuss it (the incident) internally’.

Arrow McLaren are still yet to win a race in 2023, and will be looking to end this drought at Road America 2 weeks.

RLL and the rookies the big losers in Detroit

After an eventful month of May for RLL, and not least for Graham Rahal, after he was bumped from the Indy500, reinstated in Stefan Wilson’s car and then having a battery failure on the grid, many were expecting a strong return for the team.

However, they qualified at the very back, with Lundgaard 18th, Harvey 25th and Rahal 27th. To make matters worse, Rahal crashed during a caution period, in a move more expected of a rookie driver rather than a seasoned veteran.

Speaking of rookies, Marcus Armstrong was excellent, but behind him, the rookie class was very disappointing. Augustin Canapino finished 14th, whilst Benjamin Pedersen was caught up in the incident with Rahal, and Sting Ray Robb went down the escape road and stalled twice. The rookie class certainly need to improve heading to Road America, as Alex Palou will head to Lake Elkhart looking to increase his championship lead further.