Following a poor closing restart, Ericsson was making use of strain to chief O’Ward within the closing phases of Sunday’s race when the Mexican ace suffered what was described as a “plenum occasion” that briefly zapped the automotive’s energy beneath acceleration from the ultimate flip.
With Ericsson simply zero.6s behind, the delay was sufficient to see the reigning Indy 500 champion declare the lead with 4 laps to go, before going on to seal the victory.
It was Ericsson’s fourth triumph in IndyCar, the 124th for Chip Ganassi in Indycar racing however solely the second for the staff in 20 races at St Petersburg.
“It appears no matter I do, persons are pondering perhaps I do not deserve it or stuff like that,” mentioned the previous System 1 driver, who’s now in his fifth season of IndyCar racing.
“I’ve gained lots of races, 4 races now in IndyCar, and been on the prime of the championship the final couple years, so I am simply going to maintain to that.
“Clearly at this time I did not need Pato to have an issue, however from what I heard the issue was as a result of we have been placing strain on and so they did a mistake or he did a mistake. And that is when these items can occur.
“I felt unhealthy for Pato, however we have been there to choose up on it. If I wasn’t placing strain on him and looking him down, he would have been tremendous and we’d have been second. However we have been there proper on his gearbox, and we received previous.”
Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Photograph by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Ericsson, who certified fourth quickest of the Ganassi drivers, later added: “In the long run, I did a foul restart, received out within the marbles, misplaced a pair seconds on Pato and needed to hunt him down. However I knew our race tempo was extraordinarily good, so I may shut that hole and put strain on him. He had a difficulty, no matter occurred there, however we have been placing the strain on, after which issues can occur.
“I believe we confirmed all weekend that we have been quick, and it is clearly an ideal option to begin the season for us.”
By unusual coincidence, all 4 of Ericsson’s triumphs – Detroit and Nashville in 2021, Indy 500 in 2022 and at this time’s race – have are available races which were pink flagged.
“It appears when lots of issues are occurring – persons are making errors and issues are occurring within the races – we appear to have the ability to keep cool, each me within the automotive, and the blokes on the technique and pit stops and every little thing,” he added. “And we appear to have the ability to get every little thing collectively in these conditions.
“All these races are very excessive depth races. It is not kind of easy races. That you must be prepared to regulate your technique, pitstops, restarts. There’s lots of issues occurring, and we appear to be superb at that. That is positively one in every of our strengths.
“Not saying we can not win with out the pink flag, nevertheless it’s positively been working for us.”
Ericsson emphasised that he was planning a passing try on O’Ward at Flip 1 or Flip 10 within the closing 4 laps.
“I believe I knew over a stint we have been in all probability a bit stronger than McLaren,” he remarked. “He appeared to be combating the rears and I used to be catching him, after which I needed to place strain on him to attempt to see if he did a small mistake so I may get a chance to go for an overtake.
“In fact, second is an effective begin to the season however a win is ideal. I used to be going to place the strain on and attempt to go for it. I had constructed up a bonus on the Push-to-Go, as effectively, so I used to be positively going to have a go.”
