Pagenaud admits being caught out by “Toronto Roulette”

The Frenchman hit misfortune in the Canadian race, as a full-course caution came out just before he was due to make his last pit stop from second place.

As per IndyCar’s standard procedure, the pits were closed and so with the field packed together, when he pitted he re-emerged still behind erstwhile leader, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon who had been similarly caught out, but now buried down in 14th place.

The result gift-wrapped the victory for Pagenaud’s teammate and closest championship rival, Will Power, who had hit pitlane a lap earlier in the hope of jumping his two rivals when he saw them being held up by a backmarker.

Nonetheless, Pagenaud told Motorsport.com that had the race played out without the yellow falling at that time, Dixon would have been tough to beat.

The Frenchman said: “I think [Dixon] was the man today. Maybe we were a little stronger on a long run, and maybe in traffic. When he got caught behind [Ryan] Hunter-Reay and I got back to him, I thought we really had a chance, because we tuned the car really well during the race.

"So at the end it was perfect and maybe I would have had something – but it would have been tough.

“I would have tried to pass him for sure, yeah, I felt confident, with the car the way it was. But I still think he was quite strong.

Asked if he would have considered going a lap longer than Dixon to try and pass him on the pit undercut, Pagenaud said not.

“We were going to do whatever Dixon did,” he said. “We just got caught [out] by the Toronto Roulette. Every year here, we’ve been caught by those yellows at the wrong time.”

Pagenaud suggested that, as has been the #22 team’s hallmark this year, he and engineer Ben Bretzman had found a setup that was kind to tires and comfortable for its driver.

While several drivers were left ruing their cars’ handling on one type of tire or the other, or complaining at how much the red tires had been chewed up by the twisty and revised Turn 8/9/10/11 complex, Pagenaud said he had no such worries.

“Like I say, the handling was perfect,” he said, “and red [soft] tire degradation wasn’t bad at all. The rear tires stayed on the car really well. It was nice.

"We had a little bit of understeer but not many issues and good lap times. And the blacks, no degradation at all: they were only getting better, kept running and running.”  

Hawksworth incident

Describing his collision with Jack Hawksworth five laps from the end, which saw the AJ Foyt Racing-Honda parked against the Turn 5 wall, Pagenaud commented: “He just turned in on me.

"I tried to take evasive action when I saw he was not giving me any room, I slowed down as much as I could to avoid him, but…

“Hawksworth made a mistake in Turn 3, a big mistake, so he knew I’d be there trying to pass in Turn 5, because the lap before, I had tried it. But I was there, and he just turned anyway. Sorry, man, but I’m there.

“You always want competition, but once you’re past, you’re past.”

Asked if he thought drivers were trying to take advantage of him because he would be expected to be a bit more tentative as championship leader, Pagenaud responed: “Actually, everyone was pretty good with me today.

"Marco [Andretti], Ryan [Hunter-Reay] – they saw I was very decisive and they did the same with Dixon. Drove really fair, really nice.”

Confident regarding title challenge

Although Pagenaud has not won since completing three consecutive wins back in May, he retains a 47-point championship lead over Power, 74 over another teammate, Helio Castroneves, and 83 over Dixon.

He observed: “Our championship lead is still healthy and wherever we go we’re competitive. Always top three.

“I’m bummed because we have these opportunities and can’t finish them but that’s racing. That’s IndyCar. If this was Formula 1, you’d end up where you start, but that’s the beauty of this series and you have to accept it because sometimes it plays in your direction. Today it didn’t for us.

“This was a bit of luck, and my Dad says ‘Luck always turns around,’ so we just need to be there to take advantage of it. We’ll keep positive.”