Two passes defined Marcus Ericsson’s victory at the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.
First, Ericsson and teammate Will Power bumped each other as the former was making a move late in Sunday’s race. Then, with four laps to go around the street course in Markham, Ont., Ericsson passed Romain Grosjean to take the lead for good for the fifth win of his IndyCar career.
“I think today we won it on pure pace,” said Ericsson, whose last victory was the 2023 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. “We were the best car out there, and we won it because we played the game and we pushed when we needed to and we delivered when we needed to.
“That felt really good.”
Grosjean was second, his first top-five finish of the year. Power placed third and driver rankings leader Alex Palou finished fourth.
Ericsson, Power and Kyle Kirkwood — who is second in the driver rankings — are all teammates on Andretti Global.
When Kirkwood crashed out of the race in the 53rd lap, the Andretti Global team knew they had to target Palou so he couldn’t get more points and clinch his fifth IndyCar title.
“We just talked about, ‘Hey, Marcus has got a lot of pace, tire and fuel advantage, we need to take the fight to Palou,’” said team principal Ron Ruzewski. “Obviously, we’re always thinking about the big picture. We need to take points away from Alex to keep Kyle in the conversation at all.”
Things didn’t go as smoothly as planned, however, as Power briefly turned into Ericsson’s car when he was getting passed.
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“It was miscommunication because the team came on and said, ‘Marcus is really quick, he’s coming.’ I said, ‘OK, tell him I’ll let him go on the back straight so I can stay close to Palou,’” said Power. “He didn’t get the message, or it wasn’t quick enough for him.
“I didn’t even look in my mirror. I just turned. Obviously at that point I was upset because we lost such a gap but we ended where we were going to end anyway, so it was fine.”
Palou earned 32 points on Sunday and Kirkwood earned nine in his abbreviated day. Palou leads Kirkwood by 133 points in the standings.
Ericsson’s next target was Grosjean, who has yet to win on IndyCar since making the jump from Formula One in 2021. Grosjean had been fending off Palou for much of the race but was low on fuel and had worn out his tires considerably.
“At the end of the race I knew we had to go 37-ish laps on the tires, on the fuel. That was going to be a challenge,” said Grosjean. “When I saw No. 28 car (Ericsson) pitting, I thought there was no way he would catch us. The No. 10 (Palou) was behind me, which is always a worry. Opened the gap. We should be safe.
“Next thing I knew, the 28 was coming.”
Even with Grosjean having to budget his car’s resources, Ericsson said passing him wouldn’t be easy.
“It’s still difficult. Very tight with the walls. You don’t know how he’s going to defend,” said Ericsson. “With my advantage, I wanted to get by him straightaway because you never know if there’s a yellow, the fuel advantage goes away, it’s a restart, anything can happen.”
Louis Foster was the fastest car in practice and qualifying, earning his first pole of the season.
Foster predicted pre-race that there would be “carnage” on the 12-turn, 3.52-kilometre road course around downtown Markham that runs between Kennedy Road, Enterprise Boulevard, Unionville GO tracks and Highway 407.
That prediction was prescient as Foster went out early on Sunday. He crashed in the 43rd lap when he clipped the inside wall after passing Ericsson then went nose-first into the outside wall of Turn 3.
There were six cautions during the race with four cars knocked off the course due to contact. Eleven of the 25 cars in the race didn’t finish.
It’s the first year Markham has hosted the only IndyCar race in Canada after it moved from Toronto’s Exhibition Place, where it had been held since 1986. The first day of practice and qualifying was cancelled on Friday because the track was not completed and officials couldn’t do a final safety check.
That forced the IndyCar race to do both of its practice sessions and qualifying on Saturday as USF2000 Championship, USF Pro 2000, Radical Cup Canada, and NASCAR Canada Series also tried to complete their weekend of training and races on the track.
“I think, obviously, Friday was not ideal, but when we got going yesterday, it’s been a fantastic weekend,” said Ericsson, who said all the drivers loved the track’s layout. “Great showing from the fans. It’s been a great atmosphere.
“It’s always challenging on the first year for a new track. I’m sure when we come back in a year’s time, everything is going to be run a lot more smoothly.”
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