PREMA Racing took the first top-eight finish of its debut NTT INDYCAR Series season in a race of attrition and caution periods in Toronto.
The 90-lap race began with the PREMA Racing drivers of Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman starting on differing strategies. Ilott started on the green-sidewalled alternate tires, with Shwartzman on the black-sidewalled primary tires.
The first caution flew on lap three, which gave many of the green-shod starters the chance to pit as those tires were degrading very quickly in a race where the harder tires were preferred. Ilott was included in that bunch and he restarted towards the back while Shwartzman restarted from 10th.
When racing resumed both drivers were on the move forwards, with Shwartzman gaining three places. A timely stop for Shwartzman on lap 28 in a very hectic part of the race came just before another caution.
Many drivers pitted, including Ilott again. Shwartzman restarted from eighth with Ilott in 21st.
However, Ilott was caught up in a multi-car incident on the restart. He had to pit for a front wing change, but used the opportunity to top up on fuel.
Shwartzman’s strategy was hampered by these cautions. He made his stop for the soft tires on lap 54, and his final tour to the pits on lap 60, running the harder tires to the finish.
Ilott meanwhile made his last stop on lap 57, running slightly later than many of his direct rivals.
In the closing stages of the race, both drivers were on the move forwards once again. Ilott moved up from 10th into the top eight, while Shwartzman moved up several places to finish 16th, equalling his best street course result of the year.
A late caution period cemented those places for the PREMA Racing drivers. Shwartzman was close to 15th at the time of the yellow flag.
With eighth, the team and Ilott secured their best finish of the season to date off the back of a ninth-place finish for Shwartzman at Iowa last time out.
The NTT INDYCAR Series returns to the road courses to round out a frantic month of July with a trip to Monterey, California at the iconic Laguna Seca.
#83 ROBERT SHWARTZMAN
"I have mixed feelings after our race here in Toronto. I feel like we had really good pace and I felt like a pretty good car but unfortunately we got on the wrong strategy. It happens. We started on the wrong tyres, there were too many cautions and we lost out on that. I did some cool overtaking and it was fun. It is what it is, unfortunately result-wise we didn't manage a good one but again I had some fun, I enjoyed driving here. We had good pitstops and I’m really happy about that, it felt really good. The guys did a really good job, thanks to the guys, engineers, mechanics, the whole team. We tried a gamble, it didn’t pay off and that's racing."
#90 CALLUM ILOTT
"Overall, a really solid end to the race. It was a bit weird in the beginning as I didn't really know what was going on. We got a bit unlucky with the way the yellows played out and some guys managed to box before us and get the jump, so that put us a bit further back. Then there was the carnage that happened in Turn One. We had to box and change the front wing and it put us in a good position to top up with fuel. I'm not sure we needed it, but it opened up the window for us and then then we had a really good pace on the primaries and was able to jump a lot of people around me and stabilised behind [Graham] Rahal. It was a solid end and nice to finally get a top ten."