Hola, there's another one this weekend! Pato O'Ward's heartbreaking loss to the very intense young man teetering on the edge of comic villainy, Josef Newgarden, can be rectified a mere week after at Roger Penske's own village fete in Detroit. The circuit is a blocky, low-resolution rendering of the unloved old Grand Prix circuit held in the shadow of the big General Motors building in the middle of town. It's very bumpy, doesn't have many corners and goes on for a pleasingly Monaco-like 100 laps. Last year Ganassi's Alex Palou won from pole, initiating his quite-rare-for-Indycar run of three wins in a row. Palou is the championship leader now and hasn't even won three in a row yet.
First practice? Already in the books, yeah, Palou was fastest. He's doing it again. Pato, who crashed last year, was second-fastest. Qualifying is on Saturday, as usual, at 12.15pm EST / 5.15 BST / 6.15 CEST. There will be an Indy NXT race and warm-up session on Sunday morning which will give us a chance to delude ourselves about the near- and far-future. The race, or at any rate the anthem, blessing and whatever is substituted for a flyover, begins at 12 noon / 5pm / 6pm.
See you there?
) driver originally from the region of Grenoble, Tristan Vautier whose father Eric Vautier created the Circuit du Laquais as he has been contacted by Team Dale Coyne to drive one of its two Dallaras!
