The start was fairly clean, especially for the Indy Road Course. There were no collisions in Turn 1, something we’ve seen on more than one occasion. The field streamed through Turn 1 with Rosenqvist in the lead with Harvey slipping past Dixon into second. Zach Veach was pushed wide into Turn 2 and had to cut across the gravel, but he was able to keep going.While Turn 1 was clean, the start was not. Rossi was tagged by rookie and 2018 Indy Lights champion Patricio O’Ward. O’Ward clipped Rossi as he accelerated, putting Rossi into the inside wall on the pit straight. This broke Rossi’s right rear toe link. He was able to limp around to the pits and his team were able to replace the broken part very quickly. Unfortunately Rossi lost 4 laps in the debacle and resigned himself to a points scoring day only. O’Ward was given a drive through penalty for hitting Rossi.Standing in Turn 1 and watching the cars was very interesting. You could tell by the brakes who was pushing hard early, and who was conserving fuel. Younger drivers like Harvey were pushing as hard as they could to either build a gap or make up position. You could hear the lifting points of the drivers and also see it in the rotors. The drivers pushing hard always had bright red brakes diving into Turn 1.Contrast that to veteran Hunter-Reay whose brakes are much darker at around the same point. RHR is saving fuel by lifting and coasting a few dozen meters from the braking zone. Since he is using the engine to slow the car, the brakes aren’t getting as hot. This particular GP was very cold and windy and rain was expected late in the race. Since nobody knew exactly when the rain would hit, having a wide pit window to jump to rain tires would be a key piece of strategy.Marcus Ericsson spun early on coming out of the final corner onto the main straight. He stalled the car and banged off the nose. This brought out the first yellow of the day. Ericsson made it back to the pits, but the damage was deemed terminal.On the restart, Dixon was able to nab Jack Harvey and had a go at his teammate. Rosenqvist defended, but locked his brakes going into 1. Felix ran wide and Dixon was able to slip past as they went into 2.
