Romain Grosjean says he did not make a bid to chase down his team mate to win yesterday’s Long Beach Grand Prix as it would have involved too much risk.
Kyle Kirkwood claimed the first win of his IndyCar career yesterday by less than a second from the former Haas Formula 1 driver.
Grosjean faced an uphill task to catch Kirkwood after making his final pit stop a lap before his team mate, meaning he had less fuel for the final stint and therefore couldn’t use his engine as aggressively.
Afterwards Grosjean admitted “I did not even want to try to go for the win today, it would have been taking too much risk.
“Kyle drove a brilliant weekend. He had the best strategy out there, but he was on pole. He was fast. He didn’t make any mistake. He drove well. He deserved the race.”
Grosjean was running third behind Kirkwood and leader Josef Newgarden before the final round of pit stops. Both Andretti drivers ran longer than their Penske rival to get ahead of him.
“We knew that in-lap and out-lap were going to be critical,” said Grosjean. “I was hoping that I was going to be the one going a lap longer than everyone else, but it was Kyle at the end.
“It’s normal, he was the leader. We had to cover Josef Newgarden. We did that well.”
Over the final stint Grosjean had much more of his push-to-pass allocation available than Kirkwood, but as he had to make his remaining fuel last one lap more, he wasn’t able to use it.
“Because the way the race turned out I have to save a lot of fuel on the last stint,” said Grosjean. “I had 188 seconds of push-to-pass left, but I was not allowed to use it. For once I saved too much, I guess.”
“It sucks,” he added. “I just wanted to push the button and I wasn’t allowed to.”
Keeping within his fuel allocation made the run to the chequered flag tricky, he admitted. “The fuel situation was not easy to manage through the end of the race. It created a lot of issues with brakes getting too cool, tyres losing temperature. But we had good cars and managed to get one-two.”
Yesterday’s race was Grosjean’s fourth second-place finish since joining the IndyCar series two years ago. He is still looking for his first win, but remains encouraged by the pace he has shown over the opening races this year.
“If we had won St. Pete, finished on the podium in Texas, things would have been slightly different. But we did not. I think it’s more important that we’re first and second than just trying to fight for the win.
“We’re coming to Barber in two weeks. I’m not worried. I’m going to have a fast car and get a chance there. Could win Barber, could win Indy [road course]. At the Indy 500, try to catch Ganassi, they did such a good job last year. We improving a lot, as well.
“It’s a different situation. I think we’re going to be strong everywhere. Wasn’t for today but maybe for tomorrow.”
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