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O’Ward took over the lead following the conflict between polesitter Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin, and was working laborious to carry off the charging Ericsson within the closing levels of the occasion. Nevertheless, exiting the ultimate nook on the finish of Lap 96 of the 100-lap IndyCar season-opener, the Chevrolet engine in his Arrow McLaren suffered a flash plenum fireplace, which forces a driver to briefly again off the throttle.
The hiccup was simply lengthy sufficient to permit Ericsson’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda into the lead, and O’Ward barely held off the Swede’s teammate Scott Dixon within the ultimate 4 laps.
“We did the whole lot proper in the present day, I’ve bought to provide it to the group,” stated O’Ward, who’s now in his fourth yr with the group. “Arrow Electronics and all people, not simply our #5 automotive, however Felix [Rosenqvist], Alex [Rossi], their teams, as effectively – I really feel like we have all actually collaborated fantastically and include a package deal that has been an enormous step as much as the place we had been final yr, in order that’s tremendous promising. Tremendous proud of that…
“Sadly, it’s simply very annoying to provide it away like that. Nothing else I may have completed… It shut off with a plenum fireplace. You need to let off, get again to it… It comes up randomly. You may’t actually predict it. So yeah, we simply have to take a look into it.
“We ended up with some nice factors. We began the yr like we wished to, proper? However they’re very precious factors on the finish of the day. We simply bought 10 factors thrown away. We’ll take a look in any respect the information and stuff after which simply be certain that how for that to not occur and stay up for Dallas. I actually like that place.
“I feel as a group we have arrived with one thing that is simply so significantly better than the place we had been final yr. Clearly each single monitor is completely different. You could be nice one weekend, you may get to the subsequent one and be like, ‘The place are we?’ However it is a nice first step to the place we wish to be, and we’re in nice place to problem in Texas and so forth.
Regardless of Ericsson’s comments to the contrary, O’Ward is assured he may have held on to the lead via to the checkered flag, had he not suffered the plenum occasion.
“I feel we’d have been simply effective. We had been managing a one-second hole, and I do not suppose Marcus was going to get us. Proper on the exit [of the final turn], we form of misplaced drive and gained it again. We had been fortunate to not get handed by Scott. I do not know what else to inform you. It is very unlucky.”
His new Arrow McLaren teammate Rossi got here house in fourth, whereas Rosenqvist was eradicated by injury from a coming along with Dixon on the opening lap.
