PLYMOUTH, Wisc — Colton Herta said he had the best car out there in Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America. He wasn’t wrong. He started on the pole and led a race-high 33 of 55 laps under the sun filled Wisconsin skies. However, a bad strategy call took not only a win away, but a spot on the podium as well.
Herta led the first 11 laps before pitting for the first time on Lap 12. He’d take the lead back over on Lap 13 and would lead again until his second stop on Lap 25. Both times were under caution. The second one, he had a slower stop which took him from first to third among the leaders. The thing is, both Marcus Armstrong and Will Power didn’t pit which also meant Herta would be restarting the race from fifth.
He made quick work of Josef Newgarden on the Lap 28 restart and one lap later, moved by Alex Palou for what was going to be the top spot again once this cycled back.
Armstrong pit on Lap 30. Power pit on Lap 32. Herta inherited the lead back on Lap 33 and was sailing away with this.
Then came the questionable pit decision by his pit box. They called him down on Lap 40. It was 15 laps from the end. He could make it, but had to save some fuel in order to do so. The rest of the field didn’t follow him down. They pit a lap later.
That 4.014 extra miles allowed them to push until the end while Herta was in fuel save mode. While he took the lead back on Lap 47, he only held onto it for two laps. Palou got by on Lap 48 and a few laps later, then came the rest.
Herta faded to fifth in the end. It was a dejecting finish for a driver with so much promise. He still doesn’t have a podium this season and only has two top fives now at that.
Last year, he was happy with a fifth place finish as he did so from starting 11th. This year, it was much different circumstances for which he was gutted for his fourth fifth place finish in the last five races here.
This can’t make bossman Michael Andretti very happy. He made mention before the season opener in St. Pete that the entire organization studied these types of scenarios this offseason to improve upon.
8 races in, they’re still making the same mistakes.
“I mean we did have many races where we had very fast cars last year, but we tended to do something wrong, shoot ourselves in the foot one way or another,” Andretti said back in March. “That’s another thing we’ve really studied and worked on. Hopefully our pit stops will be better and strategies will be better.
“We really worked on trying to be a lot more detail-oriented, things like that.
“I hope it pays off.”
So far, it’s not.
Romain Grosjean’s free fall continues. Entering the Month of May, he had two poles and a third place start in the first four races. He also had two consecutive runner-up finishes and sat fifth in points (-15).
Since?
His starts are 18th, 19th, 3rd and 19th with finishes of 11th, 30th, 24th and now 25th.
For the second straight race, Kyle Kirkwood was involved in a first lap crash in the first corner. For the second consecutive race, he’d rebound to finish in the top 10 as well. It makes you wonder what he could do if he kept his starting spot up front.
Still, Grosjean crashed going for the lead with 29 to go in St. Pete. He crashed from fourth with two laps left in Texas in a race that 3 of their 4 cars crashed. Grosjean was on the wrong end of strategy in Barber and finished runner-up.
The Month of May was dismal for the entire organization, Detroit was just okay and now Road America was a tough finish.
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