Herta rules wet, wild IndyCar Grand Prix

WASHINGTON: Colton Herta overcame rain-slickened conditions and a host of rivals to capture Saturday’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis for his seventh career IndyCar triumph.

The 22-year-old American was the first to switch to better-gripping wet tires at the start of the race and made a risky late pit stop to have them again, strategy moves that paid off with a victory under caution.

“It sure helped us a lot. We gained a lot of positions there,” Herta said. “Man this is awesome.

“That was the hardest race I think I’ve ever done. Wet to dry, dry back to wet.”

Herta won his first race since last year’s season-ender at Long Beach with France’s Simon Pagenaud second, Australian pole-sitter Will Power in third, Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson fourth and American Conor Daly fifth.

Rain and lightning delayed the start of the race by about 40 minutes at the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which uses some of the famed oval layout where the Indianapolis 500 will be contested on May 29.

Changing weather conditions made for a chaotic atmosphere with teams trying to guess whether to use tires with more grip in the rain or slicker rubber for dry conditions.

That led to a wild race which was trimmed from 85 laps to a two-hour event.

Power, a five-time winner on the course, made his 64th IndyCar pole start, three shy of Mario Andretti’s all-time series record, but was overtaken quickly in wet conditions by Mexico’s Pato O’Ward.

Herta made the first switch to slicker tires and escaped a skid on lap six, then passed O’Ward for the lead two corners later.

Herta kept his edge after the first pit stop cycle on lap 33 as skies darkened and Ericsson stayed out hoping the race might be stopped.

It wasn’t, but