Christian Lundgaard overcomes 'tough' mental battle at Barber for third straight IndyCar podium

The Alabama IndyCar Grand Prix ended with Alex Palou taking his third win of the season, but he was coupled with Christian Lundgaard on the podium for a third race running. The Danish driver subsequently shared his thoughts on the tough mental battle that he had to face through during the weekend.

After finishing 8th in the season opener in St. Petersburg, the 23-year-old has not looked back since. He finished the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix third as he trailed Alex Palou and his teammate to the finishing line.

However, Lundgaard became Arrow McLaren's star driver from the Long Beach Grand Prix onwards as he was the sole Papaya driver on the podium at the street circuit. This trend has now followed into the Alabama Grand Prix as the Dane finished the race in P2, after starting the race in seventh.

Christian Lundgaard revealed after the race how the weekend initially didn't go his way, as he said during the post-race interview:

"It's awesome. It's everything we could have hoped for and much better. The No. 7 crew has done an awesome job this year... We knew we could go aggressive after yesterday. The car hasn't really been as good all week, as when we tested here.

"So, it's just been tough mentally kind of dealing with that. We really didn't have time to do changes as we had an issue in Practice 1 and then obviously you're straight into P2, then it started raining, and then you're into qualifying. We made that change overnight it that was a dealbreaker. I think that's why we are on the podium today."

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Christian Lundgaard was on a roll at the Children's of Alabama Grand Prix

Christian Lundgaard at the INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Source: Getty

The Arrow McLaren driver was one of the few drivers to make his way up the grid at the Alabama Grand Prix. But, the Dane's moves stuck with the racing realm as he moved five places up from his starting position at the checkered flag.

Christian Lundgaard made a daring move on Scott McLaughlin mid-way through the race as he switched from being on the outside to the inside to overtake the New Zealander. Talking about the move after the race, he said:

"I did this on Scott Dixon a couple of years ago, so I thought I would do it on the other Scott this time."

On the other hand, Alex Palou won his third race of the season. The Spaniard dominated the race as he started on pole position and never looked back. Moreover, this has been his best start to a championship campaign in his IndyCar career.