After his terrible accident at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix in Formula 1, Romain Grosjean turned to American disciplines and more specifically the Indycar championship. During his first season (2021) in the Dale Coyne Racing team, the Frenchman refused to participate in the ovals, which he and his family considered “too dangerous”.
But temptation and passion take over. For the 2022 season, he takes part in the entire championship with the Andretti Autosport team, including races on ovals. For the first time in his career, Romain Grosjean took part in the famous Indianapolis 500 mile race, during which he shone in qualifying with an average speed of 373.366 km/h over four laps. He is the highest ranked rookie on the starting grid, in 9th position. The native of Geneva does better than a certain Simon Pagenaud, winner in 2019, forced to leave from 16th place:
« I’m very happy with what we’ve accomplished for my first ever Indy 500. We finished in the Top 9 in each qualifying session. Obviously you always want better and we did our best to have a very fast car today. It was probably a little too much for the track conditions, but it was a great effort from everyone in the team. […] It’s a good start but the most important day is next Sunday when there will be 200 laps to complete and that’s what we have to work on now.” remarks reported by our colleagues fromAutoHebdo.
Close call for @RGrosjean!
Grosjean nearly brushes the wall in qualifying for the #Indy500.
? : @NBC and @PeacockTV pic.twitter.com/E3n5RKMCKj
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 22, 2022
The 2016 world champion complained about the draw for the starting order in qualifying. According to him, he was unlucky:
“We found a lot of speed which makes me really happy, because the first lap was super fast. Unfortunately we shot number 30 in the starting order, just when the sun came up. The track warmed up and we weren’t able to maintain the same performance over the four laps. But the speed is incredible and that gives me hope. I think the car has a lot more speed to be at the front. The guys did a great job and considering the time of day we went out it was a very good performance. »
The chances of victory are not in vain for our French. Last year, Simon Pagenaud started from 26th position before moving up to 3rd place. But for that, it will be necessary to face the impressive poleman Scott Dixon, who achieved the 4 fastest laps of the Indy 500 with an average speed of 376.661 km/h.
