All seven rookies in the 2022 edition had difficult races, to varying degrees.
That included the two ‘super rookies’, a pair od drivers with years of high-level racing experience prior to making their debuts in the race: Romain Grosjean and Jimmie Johnson both crashed out.
Formula 1 veteran Grosjean ran only the road and street courses in his rookie season last year, plus the short oval at Gateway Motorsports Park.
Last weekend he was fastest Indy 500 rookie in the field – he qualified ninth, the only Andretti Autosport driver to make the second day of time trials. But Grosjean fell out of the top 10 early in the race and was running 17th when he crashed out of the race on lap 106, hitting the wall at turn two.
After being released from the infield care centre, Grosjean admitted he was at a loss to understand the race-ending crash. “The car spun,” he shrugged. “I don’t know why.”
“No warning on that corner, no issue – it was actually really good in one and two. Three and four was a bit more tricky, but in one and two it was pretty good.”
“I wasn’t expecting anything bad in that corner,” he added, “and obviously I spun without any warning.”
Grosjean wasn’t the only Indy rookie with F1 ties that was struck by the wind gusts at turn two that caught several drivers out. Callum Ilott’s race came to an end when he crashed at the same spot on lap 69, then skidded and hit the inside barrier. He was released from the medical centre, with his right hand and wrist wrapped in bandages.
“It was a bit of a hard hit,” said Ilott, “and then I hit again on the inside. But, [I’m] all okay, they checked me over and, obviously, a little bit of an issue with the right hand.”
“But we’ll see how it is in a couple of days. Big thanks to the safety team, obviously the safety barrier as well. But I’m sorry for the team as well, because it wasn’t running too bad up until then.”
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The two rookies…