IndyCar GP Indy: Herta takes victory in eventful wet-dry-wet race

The Andretti Autosport driver led 50 of the 75 laps completed before the race hit its two-hour maximum duration.

He headed Simon Pagenaud, who scored his best result since switching from Team Penske to Meyer Shank Racing over the off-season, while polesitter Will Power (Penske) took the lead of the championship by finishing third.

With a wet race declared on the damp track, Power lost out at the start to Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) and his team-mate Josef Newgarden. Behind them, Pato O’Ward moved up to fourth, but had soon made his way into the lead while Arrow McLaren SP team-mate Felix Rosenqvist also made short work of Palou to run second.

In his first of two decisive strategic gambles, Herta pitted for the red-sidewalled soft compound Firestone slick tyres on lap three together with Dale Coyne Racing's Takuma Sato.

Although the leaders soon followed his example, Herta’s pace was so strong on slicks that he made huge ground and was quickly onto the tail of O'Ward - surviving a huge opposite-lock slide through Turn 8 to pass the Mexican for the lead.

Following a caution required when Palou spun exiting Turn 4 and stalled, requiring him to be restarted by the AMR Safety Team and resume a lap down, Herta continued to lead O'Ward and Rosenqvist with Power fourth.

Newgarden had passed a fuel-saving Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing) for fifth, but his race was ended in contact with Alexander Rossi (Andretti) and Jack Harvey (RLL) after the two-time champion lost momentum being passed by Sato.

Sato claimed fourth from Power at the restart, but the race was immediately halted again when ECR driver Rinus VeeKay rejoined from a grassy moment and left Andretti's Devlin DeFrancesco with nowhere to go.

Following the third