Alexander Rossi rebounded from a difficult race at Road America by taking a third-place result at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Sunday’s (June 23) Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
Rossi qualified a strong fifth on Saturday and drove a comparatively quiet race, staying clear of a myriad of on-track incidents to make his way to a podium finish. His previous best result this season was a hard-fought fourth in the Indianapolis 500.
“I think before the yellow we were quite good up front,” Rossi said after the race. “Then when you get into a fuel save race it’s always a little bit difficult. Nonetheless it was an amazing job by the team and, obviously, our best result of the year so we’ll take the positives from that.
“And it’s a great job by Pato [O’Ward] and Nolan [Siegel] as well. We just keep hammering. Certainly a good bounce back from the difficulties at Road America and we look forward to taking that to Mid-Ohio.”
Rossi dropped the fourth at the race start and remained there until making his first pit stop on lap 23. The American swapped his black-walled Firestone Primary tires for the softer, faster red-walled Alternat tires on his second stint, cycling to the lead as Kyle Kirkwood and eventual-winner Alex Palou made their first pit stops. Rossi led from laps 27 to 36 before pitting for used Alternates on lap 37 during the race’s first caution period.
The No. 7 dropped to 15th for the third stint but climbed all the way to third place before making his final pit stop on lap 67, again for used Alternates.
Rossi had cycled to fourth by the time the race went green on lap 78 following a scary spin from Marcus Armstrong which saw the New Zealander nearly get t-boned by Graham Rahal as the No. 11 car slid across the track at the exit of turn 4.
However, IndyCar’s decision to hold the caution flag until many drivers had made it to pit road allowed Josef Newgarden, who had been nowhere most of the day, to slide into second place for the restart. Newgarden’s presence briefly disrupted the flow of the race for the front-runners, which to this point had been Palou, Colton Herta and Rossi.
A brief excursion off-track dropped Newgarden out of contention on lap 80, however, and slotted Rossi back into the podium positions, where he rode until the end.
For Rossi, the result was a much-needed shift in momentum. His first season with Arrow McLaren produced only one podium finish, a…
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