Canapino once again demonstrated his talent and signed a magnificent debut in the “ovals” of IndyCar

Agostino Canapino put in another great performance at the Indycar. After a good classification, in which he finished 19th and was the second best rookie on Saturday, the Argentinian of the team fast runsfinished 12th in the race of the second round of the season -he was 11th at one point-, which he raced in the super fast oval of Texas Speedwayin Fort Worth.

This result is even more remarkable if we consider that the man from Reef had his first experience on an oval this weekend -a few days ago he passed the rookie test on this same circuit-; but he was able to ride at the pace of other riders with much more travel in this category and on this type of track.

The victory, in a day of many neutralizations and quite chaotic, went to the American Joseph New Garden, of Team Penske, who stole the lead on the last lap. The second was the Mexican O’Ward duck (Arrow McLaren) and the Spaniard completed the podium Alex Pole (Chip Ganassi Racing).

The test on the difficult Texan circuit consisted of 250 laps of the track to complete the 375 miles, approximately 603.5 kilometres. Swedish Felix Rosenqvistpolesitter for the second consecutive year, he started from pole position with the McLarenfollowed by Scott Dixon AND Alexander Rossiin a race that gave strong emotions in the first 60 laps.

At minute 48, with Canapino turning 19° and maintaining the starting position, Takuma Sato, of Chip Ganassi Racing, crashed into the outside wall while trying to overtake another car, lost control of his car, ran across the track and ended up in the lower barrier. Then the yellow flag appeared, to give the Japanese driver time to get out of the car and allow the track to be cleaned.

But later, with the race still neutralized, a curious incident occurred in the pits, when Alexander Rossiwent wrong after making his arrest, he didn’t see it Kyle Kirkwood he was entering and hit the Andretti team driver’s car from behind. Rossi’s McLaren was left with badly damaged steering – the mechanics had to change the nose – and he was penalized for “unsafe starting”.

The accidents have not affected Canapino, who continues to show his talent behind the wheel. After the race resumed, the reef native completed several laps in 14th (which he reached for the first time in 84th), constantly putting pressure on Swede Marcus Ericsson, winner of last year’s Indianapolis 500 year.

With 150 laps completed, the Argentine fell to 15th place, while remaining the best rookie of the test. At that point in the test, the Mexican O’Ward duckwith an Arrow McLaren, he had already stolen the first position from Rosenqvist and commanded the Texan track.

On lap 159 Canapino entered the pit lane showing some problems with his car, even if he quickly rejoined the track, in 20th place. And it didn’t take long to climb some positions. Helped by the braking of some rivals, the Reef driver reached 11th position on lap 173, placing himself among the best in the race.

Rosenqvist was involved in the second on-track incident. On lap 179, the Swede lost control of the car while cornering and crashed into the outside bumper, destroying the right rear of his car. And again the yellow flag appeared, while the remains of the car were removed from the asphalt. At that height Canapino was marching twelfth.

With 56 laps to go, in a new restart, the leadership changes hands: it goes from O’Ward, to the Spanish Palou, then to the American Newgarden and subsequently to another local, Colton Hertha, all within a couple of laps. The Argentine, meanwhile, dropped to 15th.

40 laps from the finish, the American robb sting, another newcomer in the category, caused a new yellow flag. Because he lost grip when cornering and ended up crashing into the barrier inside the track.

Shortly after the return of speed, another accident involved the Canadian Devlin Defrance and the American Graham Rahal imposed a new neutralization. Canapino “disengaged” again, because he crossed the accident area very quickly inside the circuit and took advantage of it to finish 12th, behind his teammate Ilott.

A little from the end, and after the French Romain Grosjean crashed into the wall, the Dutchman Rinus VeeKay he overtook the reef, who however ended up crossing the finish line in 12th place, as best “newcomer”, signing another great performance in the category.

The Argentine, four times champion in the Road tourism, is competing in its first season in IndyCar, the most important single-seater competition in the United States. In the first race of the year, in St. Petersburg, at the beginning of March, he too finished in 12th position.