The Swiss driver started third in Long Beach and was closely tracking his polewinning Andretti Autosport team-mate Kyle Kirkwood for most of the race. But having pitted a lap before Kirkwood – by team design, to respond to Josef Newgarden making his final stop – he didn’t have the fuel to allow him to use his huge amount of push-to-pass boost at the end.
Grosjean, who is in his third season of IndyCar and his second with Andretti, said: “The first thing we’ve got to say is congratulations to the whole team – first, second, fourth [Colton Herta]. It’s been awesome, a good weekend.
“Kyle did an amazing job in qualifying and again in the race. I mean, he didn’t make any mistake in front of me.
“We had a great strategy and did a very good job. We had a very fast car. But the way the race turned out, I had to save a lot of fuel on the last stint. I had 188 seconds of push-to-pass left, but I was not allowed to use it. For once I saved too much, I guess.
“It sucks. I just wanted to push the button and I wasn’t allowed to. I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t have loved to be on the top step of the podium today, and I thought I had a chance. Just the way the race turned out and the fuel situation was, it wasn’t possible.
“As a team, I think it’s very good where we are. The team has been working super-hard through the winter to improve our pit stops. I believe in Texas I had the fastest pitstop of anyone. Here again we had a fast pitstop.”
Second place Romain Grosjean, Andretti Autosport Honda
Photo by: Tyler Clemmensen
Grosjean made his second and final stop a lap after middle-stint leader Newgarden’s, to keep the team in the hunt should a yellow fall and favour the early-stoppers. Grosjean produced a great in-lap and emerged in front of the Team Penske driver, but Kirkwood who had been running ahead of him went a lap further, and jumped both to regain the lead he had held through the opening stint.
“We knew that the in-lap and out-lap were going to be critical,” said Grosjean. “I was hoping that I was going to be the one going a lap longer than everyone else, but it was Kyle. It’s normal, he was the leader. We had to cover Josef Newgarden. We did that well.
“Yeah, as I said, the fuel situation was not easy to manage through the end of the race. It created a lot of issues with brakes getting too cool and tyres losing temperature.
“We had good cars and managed to get 1-2.”
He later added: “I’ll be 37 tomorrow. I wish I could have won for my birthday. But P2, I’ll take it.”