Alexander Rossi’s hopes of securing a solid top 10 finish at IndyCar’s latest race at Long Beach were dashed by a late suspension failure.
The incident occurred on the penultimate lap and ruined what was looking to be a strong result for the California-native.
Television cameras did not capture the moment when the Arrow McLaren driver left the track, but showed him shaking his head in disbelief while his car was stuck in the tires near turn 9.
Official track timing shows that Rossi was slower than usual from the time he crossed the finish line with two laps to go, and completed the first eight turns of the course more than two seconds slower than his previous lap.
The consistently slower pace suggests that the failure happened nearly a lap before he retired, and built into a bigger problem as he continued around the course.
During the hard braking event for turn 9, it seems that the problem Rossi’s car was having caused him to overshoot the corner completely, ending his day unceremoniously in the tire barriers.
Rossi commented after the race that suspension failure was to blame rather than any sort of driver mistake, and was disappointed not to be able to finish out the final couple laps.
“Supremely disappointing,” said Rossi. “The car was fantastic for the race. I think we finally found what we’ve been missing so far this year from a performance standpoint in the warmup.
“It was a good race, and then what happened at two laps to go is unfortunate. Ultimately, it’s really disappointing because the car was so good. The team did a great job, and we’ve just got to take the positives from this and move on to Barber.”
Before the failure, Rossi had been running in the sixth position and was set for his second top 10 finish of the year. He had to settle for the 22nd finishing position, however.
It is the second race in a row that he has had troubles in the race that derailed what looked to be satisfying results.
At Texas Motor Speedway, a collision on pit lane broke one of his steering components. The resulting repair dropped him from fifth all the way to the rear of the field, many laps down.
The latest incident at Long Beach wasn’t immediately understood, with Arrow McLaren Racing Director Gavin Ward vowing the team would look into it.
“Alexander [Rossi] was on for a great finish until the issues on the last lap,” said Ward. “The team needs to look into that. We don’t fully understand what was going on there yet, but it’s a real shame because he also had a pretty strong race pace and was making the most of what he had.”
The team has had a raft of bad luck this season among all its drivers, with Pato O’Ward suffering a short plenum fire in St. Petersburg that likely cost him a victory in the opening round, and Felix Rosenqvist crashing out of the race in Texas after taking pole.
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