Will Power called for tough measures from Indy to punish Devlin DeFrancesco after the Canadian threw him into the wall at Road America and also angered future teammate Kyle Kirkwood
Will Power arrived as Indy's leader at Road America after winning the Detroit GP. But the Australian's weekend did not go as expected. Already in qualifying, the Penske driver could not get his lap right, and started in 15th position. Things only got worse in the race, when Devlin DeFrancesco hit him from behind and drove him into the wall in turn 5.
Power lost his front wing, but was able to continue in the race. The incident, however, drove him out of his mind. On the radio, the 2014 Indy champion threatened the Canadian: "wait until I meet him. At the end of the race, the expected meeting happened. The Australian was not able to overtake DeFrancesco before the flag, but as soon as the race was over he threw his car on top of the Canadian's Andretti.
Will finished the race in 19th place. Soon after the race he stopped to talk to American Kyle Kirkwood from Foyt, who also complained about Devlin, his future teammate at Andretti. The Australian then asked for a severe punishment and believes that some time off the track would be good for the rookie.
"I think they should suspend him for a while. I think that would be a smart decision and make him think about it, because he didn't just do that to me. [Kyle] Kirkwood came after the race to talk to me and said, 'Did DeFrancesco throw you out too?' So he's clearly doing that to a lot of people," Power raged.
DeFrancesco received a stop-and-go penalty for the incident. The rookie gave his view of what happened, and said that he had been running a perfect race until he had the door closed by the Australian, but that he accepted the punishment he received.
"We were having a perfect race. We had a great start and we had a great car. We were, I think, 14th after starting 21st. We were climbing the pack. In the incident with Will Power, I had a great opportunity in turn 1, then he pushed me off the track in turn 3, and then in turn 5 he moved to the inside," explained the Canadian.
"I then went to the outside, because I saw him coming back, but I went diving on the inside and we ended up crashing, and then we got punished. Indy made its decision and that's the way it works," concluded DeFrancesco.
With the result, Power lost the Indy lead to Swede Marcus Ericsson, who finished the Elkhart Lake GP in second, behind Josef Newgarden. The series returns on July 3 for the Mid-Ohio GP.