INDYCAR: Rivals unsurprised by Pagenaud form

Simon Pagenaud's rare run of form comes as no surprise to his rivals, who admit that it's up to them to stop the Team Penske driver's current charge.

The Frenchman's win at the GP of Indy was his third-consecutive victory, and he is yet to finish lower than second so far this year. At this time last year he was 10th in the points, and eventually finished a difficult first season with Penske in 11th.

"He's a talent," said teammate Helio Castroneves. "In the past he won races before. Last year he didn't have a great season [after] moving teams [from Schmidt], and this year, everything is happening for him. Qualifying, he's hitting the right notes, getting ready every weekend. When you have someone with that momentum, the whole entire team, the group, it's very difficult sometimes to put a stop.

"But he will stop. I mean, we're going to try to find a way to stop him, and I'm sure other guys are thinking the same way: we've got to stop this guy. But at the moment, he's definitely carrying this great momentum, and good for him."

James Hinchcliffe, who is also starting to piece together some encouraging results after opening the year with disappointing outings in St Pete and Phoenix, agreed.

"I think it was more a shock last year that [Pagenaud] didn't win a race. So maybe he's making up for lost time. He's obviously got a great team, great teammates, great car and he's capitalized on some great opportunities. A couple of the big hitters had problems in qualifying this weekend, to the benefit of all of us this weekend, the rest of us.

"But he's executing really well. He's been aggressive when he has to, calculated when he has to, and that's what it takes to win races at this level. I think he's always had it in him. I think last year was probably more the anomaly than this year, but as Helio said, it's about 22 other guys trying really hard to end this streak as quickly as possible."