Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach: Rossi unchallenged on route to victory

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach: Rossi unchallenged on route to victory

Published on 14 Apr 2019 23:25

By: Fergal Walsh

Alexander Rossi took his first race win of the 2019 IndyCar season, dominating at Long Beach to win by over 20 seconds.

The California-born racer held off Scott Dixon on the opening lap into Turn 1, and again on the restart after an early yellow, caused by a coming together between Spencer Pigot, Marcus Ericsson and Jack Harvey.

After the restart, of which there was only one throughout the 8 laps, Rossi soon disappeared and went on to take his second consecutive win at his home race.

Josef Newgarden managed to cross the finish line in second place as an exciting battle occurred behind him for the final spot on the podium.

In the last number of laps, Graham Rahal was holding off Dixon who was recovering after a slow pit stop due to a fuel pump problem.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was also in the fight but dropped off in the three laps as he entered “full emergency fuel-save mode". Rahal and Dixon came together on the last lap, as the former moved over to the right-hand side of the circuit after locking up heading into the corner before.

Dixon also pulled to the right on the exit as he carried the tighter line through and the two made light contact.

Subsequently, Dixon was handed third place by race officials after the chequered flag, despite Rahal crossing the line in front of him.

Hunter-Reay managed to secure fifth place, heading the two other Chevrolet-powered Penske's of Simon Pagenaud and Will Power.

Power ran into trouble while battling Dixon during the race, locking up at Turn 1 and going straight on, losing a handful of time in the process.

After winning last time out at Barber Motorsports Park, Takuma Sato crossed the line in eighth place. James Hinchcliffe was ninth, just taking the spot ahead of Felix Rosenqvist who rounded out the top ten.

There was one retirement from the race, as Colton Herta hit the wall on lap 50. The 19-year-old lost the car on his own, continuing his tough run after winning at COTA last month.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
undefined 1.	undefined Alexander Rossi	undefined Andretti Autosport	undefined -
undefined 2.	undefined Josef Newgarden	undefined Team Penske	undefined +20.2359
undefined 3.	undefined Graham Rahal	undefined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	undefined +25.4589
undefined 4.	undefined Scott Dixon	undefined Chip Ganassi Racing	undefined +25.5745
undefined 5.	undefined Ryan Hunter-Reay	undefined Andretti Autosport	undefined +29.3447
undefined 6.	undefined Simon Pagenaud	undefined Team Penske	undefined +31.5193
undefined 7.	undefined Will Power	undefined Team Penske	undefined +33.0529
undefined 8.	undefined Takuma Sato	undefined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	undefined +34.2879
undefined 9.	undefined James Hinchcliffe	undefined Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	undefined +40.4643
undefined 10.	undefined Felix Rosenqvist	undefined Chip Ganassi Racing	undefined +41.3241
undefined 11.	undefined Sebastien Bourdais	undefined Dale Coyne Racing	undefined +49.9110
undefined 12.	undefined Patricio O'Ward	undefined Carlin	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 13.	undefined Marco Andretti	undefined Andretti Autosport	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 14.	undefined Max Chilton	undefined Carlin	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 15.	undefined Matheus Leist	undefined A.J. Foyt Enterprises	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 16.	undefined Ed Jones	undefined Ed Carpenter Racing	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 17.	undefined Zach Veach	undefined Andretti Autosport	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 18.	undefined Spencer Pigot	undefined Ed Carpenter Racing	undefined +1 Lap
undefined 19.	undefined Tony Kanaan	undefined A.J. Foyt Enterprises	undefined +2 Laps
undefined 20.	undefined Marcus Ericsson	undefined Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	undefined +2 Laps
undefined 21.	undefined Santino Ferrucci	undefined Dale Coyne Racing	undefined +2 Laps
undefined 22.	undefined Jack Harvey	undefined Meyer Shank Racing	undefined +3 Laps
undefined 23.	undefined Colton Herta	undefined Harding Racing	undefined +35 Laps