David Malukas and Sting Ray Robb have been eliminated from the competition at the Freedom 250, held in Washington D.C., due to the first major accident of the race. Additionally, championship leader Alex Palou was penalized after an incident in the pit.
The crash occurred on lap 35 of the 147 scheduled. Malukas, who had lost seventh place due to a service stop, violently hit the wall at turn 7. Robb, who was right behind him, could not avoid Malukas’ stopped car and collided with it.
Both drivers were taken to the medical center, where they were treated and later released.
After the incident, Malukas commented: ‘I want to apologize to Sting Ray; I don’t think I could have done anything in that situation. And I’d like to apologize to the team and sponsors.’ The driver acknowledged that he has been on a bad streak in recent races and committed to working to improve his form.
The accident triggered the first of a series of mass pit stops, which was the third yellow flag of the day, following two earlier for debris on the track.
During this period, Palou collided with a tire that had been left outside his pit, which cost him a pit stop that made him fall back to the rear of the group, just ahead of Santino Ferrucci, who had lost seven laps due to an electrical problem with his Chevrolet Foyt.
The restart of the race led to a new accident when Marcus Armstrong attempted to overtake Christian Rasmussen and Rinus VeeKay at turn 5, resulting in the Dutch driver’s retirement.
At the start, Kyle Kirkwood had led the race after passing Palou at turn 1. Despite losing his position when Graham Rahal, Kyffin Simpson, Romain Grosjean, and VeeKay passed him due to the yellow flag caused by Malukas, he regained the lead on the restart of lap 51.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
