Race Report: Sonsio Grand Prix Weekend

INDIANAPOLIS (May 9, 2026) -- From the drop of the green flag Saturday afternoon, the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course was anything but smooth as the field didn't  even make it through the first and second turns before triggering the first yellow flag.

Unfortunately, Caio Collet, who had posted his best qualifying run of the season in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet to start twelfth, found himself with nowhere to go when trouble started in the second row causing a multi-car melee.

Collet's car sustained damage to the front end and the crew replaced the nose cone when the pits opened; Collet didn't lose a lap. However, he reported that the steering was messed up and the engineers tried to compensate with wing adjustments.

Meanwhile Santino Ferrucci, who qualified 15th in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet, found himself in sixth when the dust cleared but had sustained a solid hit on his car's rear-end and the impact broke part of the diffuser. Result? Less downforce on a track where you need downforce.

Both cars were difficult to drive, with Collet experiencing the larger challenges.

The No. 14 car's damage soon became obvious because on the restart, he was sixth and then dropped back to 10th after just a few laps. With a couple more cautions, and savvy strategy, he would climb back to sixth but trouble in the pits saw him drop to 10th. He would stay in the top-10 until five laps to go when he was passed by Nolan Siegel. A lap later rookie Mick Schumacher hit him hard in the rear, spinning Ferrucci around while Schumacher motored past. Ferrucci kept the car going and rejoined the race in 15th. However, Schumacher was penalized and dropped to the rear of the cars running, giving Ferrucci 14th.

"I don't even know what to say, nothing like 85 laps on a downforce track with a crushed rear diffuser," said the 27-year-old Connecticut native. "So just got really unlucky. At the start, my row just didn't go, I got rear-ended, and then I nailed the car in front of me, but we avoided all the carnage at the start. In fact, we avoided all the carnage all day long. I definitely think even with the wounded car, we could have finished a little bit better. We missed some stuff in pit lane and just little things we need to work on as a team before we get to the 500."

Asked about the incident of getting knocked out at the end, he replied, "Oh, I'm not quite sure what happened at the end with Schumacher, because I think he was trying to dive to the inside, and he just misjudged it, and he just fully punted us. So I think he just misjudged the timing. He got his drive through. It cost us only three positions. So, it sucks, but we also shouldn't have been back there to begin with."

After restarting last, Collet would also break into the top-10 by mid-race, but problems with the car's damage and some trouble in pit lane cost him time and he finished 19th.

"A couple of positives to take away from the weekend," said the young Brazilian afterwards. "Our best qualifying of the year. I think we had good pace all weekend long. Unfortunately, in the race, we were involved in a lap one incident at turn one. I have to look at the replay and see exactly what happened. I felt that I was just in a sandwich there with Kyle (Kirkwood) and Scott (Dixon), and we both hit Felix, as he was spun in the middle of the track. I have to see the replay of what happened, to see maybe if I could have avoided or not. But it was kind of tricky. And after that, I had a lot of damage. So we tried our best to finish the race and try to manage the damage with some front wing adjustments on the pit stops. But, yeah, it's not easy."

Asked what he felt in the cockpit, he explained, "I think one of the push rods bent, so my steering was little bit to the left, not a little bit, quite a bit to the left. And the car was pulling one side quite a lot on the straights, and it had a little bit of a different balance from left handers to right handers. So we tried to offset that with the front wing. And I think the last two stints were a little bit better, but still far from ideal. And I think quite frustrating, because we were on for maybe a really good race, a top 10 possibly with how the yellows played out. We just have to keep pushing and have a clean weekend."

Santino poses with this weekend's honored veterans prior to the race.

The teams now focus on preparing for the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 which will be broadcast on FOX on Sunday, May 24th starting at 10 am ET.

In the INDY NXT by Firestone series, a lot was learned in this weekend’s doubleheader.

Alessandro de Tullio continued his strong qualifying form, securing his fourth pole of the season for Race One of the Indianapolis Grand Prix and narrowly missing a clean sweep of poles by qualifying second for Race Two. In the doubleheader weekend, de Tullio brought the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing entry home ninth in Race One and secured a top-five finish in Race Two, ending the weekend with a fifth-place result.

INDY NXT by FIRESTONE race start with de Tullio on the pole Friday.

"Well, we finished a hectic weekend here in Indy," summed up de Tullio. "Pace was not a question the whole weekend — we got pole for Race 1 and qualified second for Race 2. We missed out a bit in both races with some racing situations. I didn't really put it all together, so I definitely need to focus on that for the future. The pace has been there, but I just need to execute in the race. Indy is always tricky into Turn 1, and that was obviously a big part of both races. Turn 1 took us out of contention. Anyway, eyes forward and focus on what's to come."

His teammate Nicholas Monteiro worked through a challenging weekend with car balance, but was encouraged in that he continued to show pace. Starting 21st and 22nd respectively, he improved to 18th in both Race One and Race Two. The Brazilian-American is focused on learning as much as possible and to work closely with his engineer.

Nicholas Monteiro wheels the No. 4 car during the Indy GP weekend.

"Friday, Race 1, was a pretty tough day for me," revealed Monteiro. "We had some issues with the car in practice and went into qualifying without fully solving the problem, starting P20. Halfway through the race it started raining, which made it even more difficult. It was my first time driving the INDY NXT car in the rain, and the last time I drove in the rain was about two years ago. But it was still a good learning experience — I learned a lot about the car, the track, the lines, and the tires in wet conditions.

"In Race 2, we didn’t get the points we wanted. The car was difficult to drive with a lot of oversteer, but I think we have pace for the next races. We’ll do a lot of simulator work, prepare more, and come back stronger. It was a tough weekend, but that’s racing."

The INDY NXT by Firestone series returns to action in Detroit on May 31 with FS1 broadcasting the race starting at 10:30 am ET.