Motorsport.com - Rossi admits Detroit error but “conceding a win isn’t going to happen”
Alexander Rossi says that the mistake that cost him a near-certain second place in the Detroit GP’s second race lay with his own driving, but that he was never going to just move over and let teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay past.
The third-year IndyCar driver, who came into the second race holding the championship lead, took pole and, using a two-stop strategy, led 46 of the first 63 laps in the 70-lap event.
However, Andretti Autosport teammate Hunter-Reay, setting ultra-quick lap times and on a three-stop strategy, slashed into Rossi’s lead in his closing stint, and while under pressure from the 2012 series champion, Rossi locked up and skated down the Turn 3 escape road.
The lockup was bad enough that his front tires delaminated and he had to limp back to the pits, rejoining 13th and finishing in 12th. He lost the lead of the championship, and second place, to Will Power (Penske) and Scott Dixon (Ganassi), who finished second and fourth respectively on the day.
Immediately after the race, Rossi was at a loss to explain why the situation had occurred, but on Monday conceded that he’d been at fault.
He told Motorsport.com: “I was hoping for a different answer but at the end of the day, the problem was with Alex!
“It was a combination of using the front tires really hard in the race – I didn’t have the pace of Ryan and we couldn’t dial out....
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