Mick Schumacher finished his debut race on Detroit’s infamous downtown street circuit nine laps behind race winner Alex Palou. The German was classified in 21st place after an incident, and then being forced to pit due to a radio malfunction.
But before things went south, it seemed as though Schumacher had been given his best chance of his rookie season. His team, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, brought Schumacher—who had been slowly working his way up from 23rd on the grid—in early for his final pit stop. In the IndyCar Series, this offers the chance to gain positions if a caution is called shortly after the stop.
And indeed, Schumacher got lucky: Just as he was exiting the pits, Santino Ferrucci (Foyt-Chevrolet) and Rinus VeeKay (Juncos-Chevrolet) collided, triggering one of the six cautions in this race.
Since the majority of the field had not yet pitted and the pit lane is closed under a caution until the field has regrouped behind the pace car, Schumacher was effectively second behind Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda; 1st) at the restart. The actual second-place driver, Alexander Rossi (ECR-Chevrolet), still had to serve a penalty.
As it turned out after the race, however, Schumacher shouldn’t have been allowed to keep that position either.
He was retroactively handed a penalty by IndyCar officials because the pit lane was already closed when he entered for his pit stop. In such cases, tenths of a second can make all the difference.
Schumacher had major trouble finding the right grip at the restart. This had also been the case during earlier restarts. As a result, David Malukas (Penske-Chevrolet) immediately attacked him. The battle stretched over several turns, during which there was also some contact.
Before Turn 5, Schumacher then braked too hard and took Malukas with him. This sent both of them to the back of the field.
Malukas subsequently lost four laps in the pits, while Schumacher initially continued. After 85 of the 100 scheduled laps, he finally came into the pits. This was done on the instructions of race control because the radio on his car was no longer working. His Dallara-Honda was repaired over eight laps, then he limped across the finish line in 21st place.
Translated from German
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