Romain Grosjean equalled his career-best IndyCar Series result at the Long Beach Grand Prix, and scored his first podium as a member of Andretti Autosport with a second-place finish.
But he admitted after Sunday’s race that he may not have had to fight as hard for a podium, and could even have scored his maiden IndyCar win, had it not been for his mistake in qualifying on Saturday.
“The car is straightforward to drive, there’s one thing I need to improve to make it a touch more to my liking, but I think we’ve got a very strong baseline and a car that can go super-fast,” said Grosjean. “It was my fault I just didn’t qualify well.”
Grosjean advanced to the final round in qualifying and was set to start on the front row before crashing out of the session, causing a red flag. Under IndyCar’s rules, that meant Grosjean lost his fastest two laps of the session, and was moved down to sixth on the grid.
“I wish I would have started second, it would have made my day a lot…