– With blunt weapons, Mick Schumacher (RLL-Honda; 16th) fought his way to a conciliatory result in the IndyCar race. With clever strategy and fighting spirit, the son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher managed 16th place despite lacking speed on the straights, after having even fallen to last place in the early stages. (Result)
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The problem from Saturday had not disappeared on Sunday either, and Schumacher mysteriously lacked speed on the straights. The loss amounted to two to three tenths of a second per lap on the two long straights of Portland International Raceway. This cost Schumacher all positions in the first four laps of the race.
Nevertheless, he showed fighting spirit and gained position after position. The start was made by none other than his teammate Graham Rahal (RLL-Honda; 23rd), who triggered the only yellow phase of the race after seven laps due to a driving error.
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Several drivers used this to make a pit stop, Schumacher stayed out. This strategy proved to be correct. Except for Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet), he did not have to let anyone pass anymore. On the contrary, from then on it was only forward – despite the still missing performance.
Decisive for his march forward was then an overcut strategy, with which he gained positions at both the first and second pit stops and then defended the gained positions. He even managed to gain a position on track against Romain Grosjean (Coyne-Honda).
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At times, it even looked as if a top-15 result was possible when Schumacher closed in on Scott Dixon (Ganassi-Honda; 14th) in giant strides on soft tires. However, the six-time IndyCar champion fended off all attempts with his routine.
In the last stint, Schumacher met his teammate Louis Foster (RLL-Honda), but soon had to focus on defending against a resurgent Grosjean.
Schumacher fought on used soft tires and had to stretch himself a lot, because besides Grosjean, Nolan Siegel (McLaren-Chevrolet; 18th) was also after his position. Grosjean and Siegel also fought each other, in the end Schumacher kept Grosjean 0.097 and Siegel 0.466 seconds behind him.
Reload page! A report on the race outside of Mick Schumacher will follow shortly here.
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