Will Power celebrated his two podiums at the weekend in Iowa even after failing to convert his pole-positions into wins
Will Power finished the Iowa 2 GP on Sunday afternoon (24) in second position. Starting from the pole-position, the Australian was overtaken by teammate Josef Newgarden on the track and by Mexican Pato O'Ward in the pits. Newgarden's crash, when he seemed to have a second victory on the oval guaranteed, elevated him to second place and gave the victory to the McLaren driver.
Even after failing again to convert the pole-position into victory, Power highly valued his second podium of the weekend, especially thinking about the title fight with Swede Marcus Ericsson. The gap to his Ganassi rival is now down to just 18 points.
"Today, in the penultimate stint, I tried to save my tires more, because I overdid it in the last stint yesterday, but the track got better, it was crazy how fast and grippy it was. It's still a great day, I would love to take the win, I led a few laps, I think we were really fast," Power commented after the race.
"It feels really good to be back on the podium and closing the points gap to the leader. I hope to get a win here soon. We were close, we did well in qualifying. But I'm enjoying the contests and I love this track," said the Australian.
The Iowa 2 GP seemed on course to end with the same podium as the first race on Saturday (23). The shocking accident of Newgarden, who lost the rear end after a mechanical problem and crashed at the exit of turn 4, changed everything. Will said he didn't know the reason for the crash, so he didn't worry about having similar problems to his Penske teammate.
"I didn't know it was a suspension failure. If you hear that, you start to get worried, but my spotter said he had made a mistake in traffic. It's hard when that happens to you, leading the race and something breaks, I feel bad for him, there's nothing worse than finishing on the wall when it's not your fault," lamented the Australian.
Power is back on track next Sunday (31) for the Indianapolis GP 2, on the mixed circuit of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.