Christian Lundgaard secured his first IndyCar race win as an Arrow McLaren driver in the latest Indy GP. The Dane had started his sixth race at the track from P4 on primaries, managing to find some pace after more challenging Practice sessions. He suffered from a slightly slow stop on his pit outing during lap 49. However, the best moments of his Saturday were yet to come.
Lundgaard began to cut close on at-time race leader David Malukas even before his final pit stop on Lap 63, with the pivotal pass for the lead completed with 18 laps to go. Ultimately, the McLaren man was able to hold on the top spot for the remainder of the race.
Lundgaard’s first Arrow McLaren lauren’s was a long coming at the Indy GP
The Indy GP is Lundgaard’s second IndyCar career race win following the 2023 Toronto GP. He is also a previous polesitter at the Indy GP.
While the former had been a more dominant display, it was definitely a great experience for the young talent, as he commented after the end of the race.
“First of all, it’s a lot of unfinished business for me around here. Obviously, being competitive here pretty much every year except last year, and I really wanted to get some redemption for that. We worked hard to try to figure out where we really went wrong last year. I think we obviously did, but I mean, it just feels awesome. I hope that it doesn’t take another three years for another one, right?”
Lundgaard recalled the pit lane exit violation, which had warranted him a stop and go penalty. Ultimately, his day saw him end in P16, ending a streak of three consecutive podium finishes in a row.
Even more so considering his past hardships at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the former RLL driver was ecstatic with his achievements.
“Thanks. It feels awesome right now, and I’m sure I will probably realize tomorrow what really happened today. It really wasn’t what I expected waking up this morning. Obviously with qualifying getting pushed to this morning and racing the same day, it’s not really a traditional INDYCAR weekend.”
An unexpected success
In spite of his very strong Qualifying performance, he admitted that neither a race week, nor a podium had been on his mind ahead of the race round.
At the start, he had to avoid the big Turn 1 collision, which saw several contenders out of the race or severely penalised after few seconds of racing.
“Obviously this is a two-day weekend already, and everything just kind of felt very fast. We made a lot of good progress from P1 to P2. I thought we were going to be a little better in qualifying than we were. So, I kept my head cool after obviously the lap 1 incidents with everything that happened there. Obviously you go into turn 1 wanting to make position, not lose positions.”
Among the affected drivers there was his teammate Pato O’Ward, with the Mexican starting ahead of him in P2. Lundgaard expressed his sympathy for the colleague, blameless in the event but suffering severe consequences on his own race and performance.
Additionally, having such two strong contenders at the front had posed a great threat for the eventual race win, while being a great asset for Arrow McLaren. However, in the span of a few seconds it all turned to dust.
“I felt so bad for Pato, because we had such a good plan planned for how we were going to attack the race between the two of us. We had two cars in the front, and we knew the 10 car was going to be strong. Obviously having one car left up there, but also losing positions kind of hurt a little bit. For me it was just take my race as it was from there. Then the strategy didn’t work out for them.”
The highlight of his Saturday
Ultimately, the moment which decided the outcome of the Indy GP and McLaren ‘s fate was Lundgaard’s overtake on Team Penske’s Malukas, a bold move on the outside of his fellow driver at Turn 4. The Dane described the moment from his own perspective, admitting it appeared to his eyes not as bold as it could have seemed to the outside eye.
“Probably looks more spectacular from the outside than it really did inside the helmet. You know, at the end of the day, I’ve been now watching it on the TV screen probably 50 times, but it doesn’t look the same way as what it felt
“No, I knew I had one chance, maybe two on David at that time. He seemed to be pretty strong in [Turn] 14, and we weren’t. His braking performance was also a little stronger than I thought ours were. I knew I could do it around that pit sequence. Obviously we tried to undercut him. I struggled a lot on out laps. He seemed to be a little better than I was.”
The Papaya man also took advantage of the presence of slower drivers in the front, which helped him to reduce his contender’s speed and find the best spot.
“I think it was Grosjean that was ahead. There was another car in play at the time that slowed him down. I tried to set him up for 2 and actually make the slingshot to be on the inside for turn 4, but he was pretty slow kind of through the kink of 3. I thought, “okay, f*** it, I’m going to stay on the outside and see how it goes.’”
A trustworthy driver
Finally, he also praised his rival on the occasion for the respect and competence he showed while duelling for the race win
“David has always been very respectful to race against. I’ve been teammates with him in go-karts many, many years ago now, but again, there’s certainly drivers that you trust less. There’s drivers you trust more. That’s just how it goes.
“At the end of the day, I had, again, nothing to lose. I could finished second. Okay, that’s fine, but I have so much unfinished business here. For me, I wanted to win. I have enough second places in the past year and a half, I wanted a win. I was kind of willing to do what it took, and I also knew that it was going to be respectful. Again, I wouldn’t have done that if it was someone else,” Lundgaard concluded strongly, highlighting the load off his shoulders following his first Arrow McLaren race win at the Indy GP.
