Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2014
| Racing data | ||
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| 1st of 18 races of the IndyCar Series 2014 | ||
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| Surname: | Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg | |
| Date: | March 30, 2014 | |
| Place: |
 Saint Petersburg , Florida , United States
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| Course: | Streets of St. Petersburg | |
| Length: | 318.65 km in 110 laps of 2.897 km
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| Weather: | sunny | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Takuma Satō
|
 AJ Foyt Enterprises
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| Time: | 1: 01.8686 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
 Will power
|
Team Penske
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| Time: | 1: 02.3404 min (lap 95) | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
Will power
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Team Penske
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| Second: |
Ryan Hunter-Reay
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Andretti Autosport
|
| Third: |
 Helio Castroneves
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Team Penske
|
The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2014 took place on March 30th in the Streets of St. Petersburg in Saint Petersburg , Florida , United States and was the first race of the IndyCar Series 2014 .
Reports
background
In this race, three drivers made their debut in the IndyCar Series. Mikhail Aleshin ( Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ) and Carlos Huertas ( Dale Coyne Racing ) switched from Formula Renault 3.5 to series production. Aleshin came twelfth in 2013 , Huertas 14th. Jack Hawksworth ( BHA / BBM with Curb Agajanian ) rose to fourth in the Indy Lights . Carlos Muñoz , who had already contested the last race of the season in 2013 for Andretti Autosport , also came from Indy Lights . Muñoz was third overall in the Indy Lights.
Juan Pablo Montoya returned to formula racing after a few years in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and was given a cockpit at Penske Motorsports . Montoya won the CART series in 1999 and the Indianapolis 500 in his only appearance in the IndyCar series in 2000 . Ryan Briscoe ( NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing ) was previously at the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2013 for Panther Racing and Mike Conway ( Ed Carpenter Racing ) at the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston 2013 for Dale Coyne Racing.
Three drivers had changed teams. Tony Kanaan from KV Racing Technology for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Sébastien Bourdais and Sebastián Saavedra both switched from Dragon Racing , who were no longer in the starting field, to KV.
Except for Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport, all teams kept their engine manufacturers. Chip Ganassi Racing moved from Honda to Chevrolet ; Andretti Autosport the other way around: from Chevrolet to Honda. Honda used a twin-turbo engine this season - like Chevrolet in previous years.
For the first time since the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2008 , there was no female racing driver in the starting field of the IndyCar Series.
With Hélio Castroneves (three times), Graham Rahal , Briscoe, Will Power and James Hinchcliffe (once each), five former winners competed at this Grand Prix.
training
Hinchliffe was the fastest in the first training session. Justin Wilson finished second, Takuma Satō third. The best time was set in the middle of the training. Time improvements at the end of training were made more difficult by a red flag after a Bourdais accident. In the second training session Satō took the lead in front of Rahal and Power. The first 19 pilots were within a second. The training was interrupted three times. Incidents at Hawksworth, Josef Newgarden and Saavedra were the trigger. At the end of the second practice session, Montoya hit the tire wall, which no longer resulted in a red flag.
In the third training session, Briscoe set the fastest time ahead of Castroneves and Sato. With the exception of Huertas, all pilots were within a second.
Qualifying
Qualifying was postponed by about four hours due to bad weather. Due to severe thunderstorms and a tornado warning , the grandstands, all outdoor areas and the pit lane were cleared.
The first part of the time training was held in two groups. The six fastest drivers in each group came into the second segment. The remaining starting positions were determined from the result of the first qualifying segment, with the drivers in the first group being assigned the odd positions from 13 and the drivers in the second group the even positions from 14. The track was still wet after the thunderstorm, but it dried off. In the first group there were a total of two red flags after Rahal and Hinchcliffe incidents. In the first group, Kanaan drove the fastest lap, in the second group Satō was the fastest driver.
In the second segment of the qualification, the six fastest drivers qualified for the final section. The track continued to dry out, so that in the end all drivers were using the softer Reds tire compound . Satō achieved the fastest lap time. He was one of three drivers who drove with the Reds throughout this section. Besides him, Ryan Hunter-Reay , Power, Marco Andretti , Kanaan and Scott Dixon made it into the third part of qualifying, the so-called Firestone Fast Six.
Satō finally drove the fastest time and achieved pole position in front of Kanaan and Hunter-Reay.
Final training
In the final training, Muñoz was the fastest. Newgarden was second, Bourdais third. The training was interrupted once after an incident by Montoya at the beginning. Montoya understeered at Turn 10 and hit the tire wall.
run
Satō kept the lead at the start from Hunter-Reay, Kanaan, Power and Dixon. There was only one contact between Rahal and Hinchcliffe in the field on the start-finish straight. Rahal had improved from 21st to 13th place. In the eighth corner there was a contact between Bourdais and Montoya. In the early stages, the drivers sat on the softer Reds in the front field, while Andretti was the best in 13th place with the harder Blacks.
The drivers on the harder tires began the phase of the first pit stops on lap twelve. Bourdais, whose front wing was damaged after contact with Montoya, was one of the first pilots and also changed the front wing when he stopped. The drivers in the leading group stayed longer on the track. Satō lost the lead after his stop briefly to Castroneves, but got it back after his stop. Satō was then put under pressure by Power, who had stopped a little earlier, and was overtaken in the first two corners on lap 31. Satō, who was now on the harder tire compound and had problems with it, was put under pressure in the next few laps by Castroneves and Hunter-Reay.
At the second pit stops, Power briefly gave the lead to Satō, who stayed out of the top group the longest and therefore lost positions. After everyone was pitted, Power led Castroneves, Hunter-Reay, Conway and Satō. Conway managed to pass Hunter-Reay on lap 65.
At the front, Castroneves caught up with Power, who, in contrast to his team-mate, used the harder tire compound. The first caution occurred in the 75th lap after Charlie Kimball slipped in the first corner. Kimball resumed the race but gave up shortly before the end of the race. The drivers who have not pitted for the third time use the yellow phase to stop. Conway, who was previously in third place, missed the time to pit due to a communication problem, stayed one lap longer on the track and eventually fell back to the rear of the field. Conway also mistakenly overtook the safety car and received a drive-through penalty.
The restart in the 82nd lap was the first after the double file restarts were abolished . Power assumed that the leader can now determine the time of the restart, so that he slowly led the field onto the start-finish straight and all drivers slowed down. However, Power misunderstood the new regulation, as the race management continued to give the signal to restart with the green flag. This increased the risk of accidents in the field. Hawksworth eventually lost control of his vehicle and collided with Andretti. The race was over for both drivers. Muñoz was also involved in the incident. The race was again neutralized by the yellow flag. Hawksworth had previously shown a good performance on his debut.
There was no further incident at the following restart. Power kept the lead, Hunter-Reay overtook Castroneves and took second position.
Power eventually won the race, taking his third straight win. This enabled Power to win at least one race for eight seasons in a row. Since the start of the 2010 season , Power has also led 55 of 69 races. Hunter-Reay finished second ahead of Castroneves, Dixon and Simon Pagenaud . The top 10 completed Kanaan, Satō, Wilson, Newgarden and Briscoe.
Aleshin was the best debutant in twelfth place. Montoya reached 15th place on his return.
Registration list
All teams and drivers used the chassis Dallara DW12 with an aero kit from Dallara and tires from Firestone .
Source:
Classifications
Qualifying
Swell:
run
Swell:
Guide sections
| section | Round | driver |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-26 |
Takuma Satō
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| 2 | 27-28 |
Helio Castroneves
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| 3 | 29-30 |
Takuma Satō
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| 4th | 31-52 |
Will power
|
| 5 | 53-57 |
Takuma Satō
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| 6th | 58-76 |
Will power
|
| 7th | 77 |
 Mike Conway
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| 8th | 78-110 |
Will power
|
Swell:
Yellow phases
| No. | Duration | Round | Reason for yellow phase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 76-81 | 6th | Contact: Charlie Kimball (# 83) in turn 1 |
| 2 | 83-86 | 4th | Contact: Marco Andretti (# 25), Carlos Muñoz (# 34) and Jack Hawksworth (# 98) on the start-finish straight |
Swell:
Score after the race
Driver ranking
The allocation of points is explained here .
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Pete Fink: “St. Pete: Hinchcliffe ahead of Wilson - Montoya 14. “ Motorsport-Total.com, March 28, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ “Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice 1”. imscdn.com, March 28, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ^ "Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice 2". imscdn.com, March 28, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Pete Fink: "Stories about the St-Pete-Prelude". Motorsport-Total.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Pete Fink: "Second Training: Sato in front - Montoya in back". Motorsport-Total.com, March 28, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ "Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice 3". imscdn.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Pete Fink: “St. Pete: Briscoe takes over - Montoya keeps fighting ”. Motorsport-Total.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Pete Fink: "Tornado Warning in St. Pete - Qualification at 10:00 pm". Motorsport-Total.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Mark Glendenning: “St Petersburg IndyCar: Sato grabs pole in delayed qualifying”. autosport.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Pete Fink: "'Konnichiwa': Sato takes the St. Pete Pole!" Motorsport-Total.com, March 29, 2014, accessed on April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Dave Lewandowski: "Verizon P1 Award goes to Sato for opening race". indycar.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ^ "Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice Finals". imscdn.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Mario Fritzsche: “St. Pete: Rookie Munoz fastest in warm-up ”. Motorsport-Total.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Mario Fritzsche: "Bourdais: 'Our time will come'". Motorsport-Total.com, March 31, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Mario Frizsche: "Live ticker St. Pete: Power starts the season with a win". Motorsport-Total.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d e Mark Glendenning: "St Petersburg IndyCar: Will Power starts season with win for Penske". autosport.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Mario Fritzsche: “St. Petersburg: First win for Will Power ”. Motorsport-Total.com, March 31, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ^ "Inside 1st race box score: St. Pete numbers to note". indycar.com, April 1, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Dave Lewandowski: “Power prevails in opener; wins third race in a row ”. indycar.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Philipp Schajer: "IndyCar - Will Power wins in St. Petersburg". Turbulent restart. Motorsport-Magazin.com, March 31, 2014, accessed April 15, 2014 .
- ↑ “Entry List - Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 27, 2014, accessed April 5, 2014 .
- ↑ “Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at Streets of St. Petersburg - QUALIFYING RESULTS”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 29, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ “Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg - Official Starting Line Up”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c “OFFICIAL BOX SCORE - Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 30, 2014, accessed April 14, 2014 .