By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Alexander Rossi was a speeding bullet out of the gun late Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And it was Oriol Servia who pulled the trigger.
While running one lap down near the front of the pack in the 103rd Indianapolis 500, Servia was seen defending lead-lap runner Alexander Rossi, who attempted to continue his run toward the top three. Servia didn’t make it easy.
Following multiple close calls between the two, Rossi finally passed Servia heading into Turn 1, showing his displeasure by waiving his fist while passing the No. 77.
Rossi said it was a disrespectful case of driving while the Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports one-off veteran had his own race to run in the closing stages.
“Obviously, I don’t want to make anyone unhappy,” Servia told Kickin’ The Tires. “But I’m in a position where I know I have a good car and if something happens in the front, I can get my lap back.”
After a wheel nut got stuck under the car during a green-flag pit stop, Servia was trapped one lap down… and never got it back.
“That’s usually not a big deal in the 500, you usually get a chance to get your lap back… it never happened in this race,” he said. “It’s just when the yellows came out. There was a huge stretch with no yellow, so there is nothing you can do. There was, I don’t know, 100 laps with no yellows at all, they all came at the end where everyone already had just one stop to make. There’s no magic there for you to do.”
Still, the Spaniard had plenty to race for while Rossi attempted to pass.
“Any of those guys who had a car underneath me or was side-by-side, I let them pass,” he said. “But, I cannot let guys pass one after the other, then I have no chance — I’m 20th in line again, forget it, might as well park.
“Whenever [Rossi] was by me, I actually lifted. I would have never lifted if I was going on the same lap.”
Rossi eventually finished second while Servia only managed 22nd.
“I understand he’s frustrated, he wanted to win and I’m sure he wanted to pass me faster or easier. But he just couldn’t,” he said. “I don’t want to upset anyone but I had my own race to do and tried to do it the best for my guys.”
Though running only the Indy 500 in all of 2018, Servia may see more track time in 2019 thanks to sponsor MotoGator, who joined Servia for the Month of May.
“Of course, I wanted to give them a win today but I hope they still had a good time and they got a taste of where the future can take us,” he said. “There are actually a couple things we are working on, so you never know. I would love to [race again], I’m here to race and win races so if we can put a good package together, you’ll see me there.”