Defeated VeeKay too conservative on Barber IndyCar out-lap

The downhill hairpin left-handed Turn 5 follows a long climb from Turn 2, and it is notoriously difficult to judge the ultimate braking loftiness for the corner while on a unprepossessed set of Firestone’s harder primary recipe tyres.

Ed Carpenter Racing\'s VeeKay led Arrow McLaren SP rival O\'Ward for the first two stints of the race from pole position, but his two-second wholesomeness was sealed to virtually nothing as both headed for the pits on lap 61 when the Dutchman lost ground in traffic.  

As they departed the pits on lap 62, O’Ward was so tropical that he plane took a squint lanugo the inside of Turn 2, surpassing slipstreaming the ECR car up the hill.

VeeKay moved left to defend the inside line into Turn 5, but the Arrow McLaren SP suburbanite outbraked him on the outside, took a wide radius to the corner and unsupportable the net lead.

Two laps later, Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) emerged from his final stop into the gap between O’Ward and VeeKay, at which point the ECR suburbanite was unable to alimony on terms with the leading pair.

VeeKay nonetheless came home third, his weightier result since he finished runner-up to O’Ward in last year\'s first Detroit race.

\"The weekend has been pretty good,\" VeeKay said. \"We started out the first two-thirds of the race very strong, leading, saving a lot of fuel. Very happy with that.

\"Unfortunately I got held up a little bit surpassing getting into my second pit stop, so Pato was on me, really on me.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Patricio O\'Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, podium

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

\"I did write-up him out of pit lane but coming into Turn 5 I just took it a little bit too conservative, and he got virtually me. He crush yonder basically. I lacked a little bit of pace on the last set of tyres.

\"Pato and Alex were a little bit too fast for me to hang with, but I think third place is pretty good still.

\"Unfortunately I didn\'t push unbearable on that out lap. Another lesson learned – unfortunately the nonflexible way.”

Asked why he had been cautious, VeeKay replied: \"Well, I have screwed myself a few times in the past braking a little too deep, locking a tyre, basically destroying my whole last stint.

\"I did not know Pato was going that deep. I was looking in my mirrors a lot – maybe that distracted me a little bit, I don\'t know.

\"If I could go back, I would go way deeper and stay superiority of him.

\"I was moreover struggling a little bit increasingly on my last set of tyres, he was definitely faster on that last stint.

\"It\'s a deserved win for him, fortunately I still got a podium out of it.\"