Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2016

Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2016

Racing data
1st of 16 races of the IndyCar Series 2016
Surname:	Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Date:	March 13, 2016
Place:	Saint Petersburg , Florida , United States
Course:	Streets of St. Petersburg
Length:	318.65 km in 110 laps of 2.897 km
Pole position
Driver:	Will power	Team Penske
Time:	1: 00.2450 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing
Time:	1: 02.2307 min (lap 42)
Podium
First:	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske
Second:	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske
Third:	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2016 took place on March 13th in the Streets of St. Petersburg in Saint Petersburg , Florida , United States and was the first race of the IndyCar Series 2015 .

Reports

background

As in the previous year, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the season opener of the IndyCar Series.

At this Grand Prix three drivers made their debut in the IndyCar Series. Spencer Pigot , who won the Indy Lights in 2015 with Juncos Racing , received a cockpit for individual races with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing . Max Chilton , Indy Lights fifth with Carlin , became a regular driver at Chip Ganassi Racing . Alexander Rossi , who finished second in the GP2 series with Racing Engineering in 2015 and contested five Formula 1 races for Manor , received a cockpit at Andretti Autosport .

James Hinchcliffe returned to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports after his injury break . Conor Daly , who had completed several races as a representative for Hinchcliffe for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2015, became a regular driver for Dale Coyne Racing .

Luca Filippi switched from CFH Racing to Dale Coyne Racing and initially received a cockpit for the season opener.

At CFH Racing, the two partners Sarah Fisher and Wink Hartman got out. Ed Carpenter , who was now the sole owner of the team, renamed the team Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2016 season . CFH Racing was only created in 2015 from a merger of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing . Bryan Herta incorporated his racing team Bryan Herta Autosport into Andretti Autosport . Herta took all employees to Andretti, which increased the permanent number of vehicles from three to four.

With Hélio Castroneves (three times), Will Power (twice), Graham Rahal , Hinchcliffe and Juan Pablo Montoya (once each), five former winners took part in the event. Tony Kanaan started an IndyCar race 250 times in a row.

training

The first training session took place on Friday and lasted 75 minutes. Simon Pagenaud set the fastest lap ahead of Jack Hawksworth and Castroneves. The training was interrupted by Power after an accident. Power hit the right side of the car into the lane between turns nine and ten. Power lost control of his vehicle when he changed the brake force distribution and the steering wheel slipped out of his hand when driving over a bump.

The second training session should also last 75 minutes, but the running time was shortened to around 40 minutes due to repair work in the third corner. Power took the lead ahead of Scott Dixon and Pagenaud.

In the third training session, Power again set the fastest time. Hawksworth finished second, Montoya third. Training was interrupted once after Ryan Hunter-Reay rolled out of fuel before the tenth turn.

Qualifying

The first part of the qualifying was held in two groups according to the usual qualifying system for street courses. 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. In the first group Dixon drove the fastest lap, in the second group Power was the fastest driver. Best debutant was Chilton in 17th place.

In the second segment of the qualification, the six fastest drivers qualified for the final section. Power achieved the fastest lap time. Next to him, Dixon, Pagenaud, Montoya, Castroneves and Hunter-Reay made it into the third part of qualifying, the so-called Firestone Fast Six.

In the third part, Power finally set the fastest time and achieved pole position in front of his team-mates Pagenaud, Castroneves and Montoya. So all Penske pilots were in the first four positions. Hunter-Reay was the sixth best Honda rider.

After qualifying, Power complained of nausea and headaches and skipped the post-qualifying press conference. The doctors initially assumed a virus infection. Since the symptoms persisted the following day, Power underwent further examinations and Penske withdrew his report. He was replaced by Oriol Servià , who competed for Andretti Autosport in the last race. The medical diagnosis on race Sunday said that Power had suffered a previously undetected concussion in his training accident . Further research at the University of Miami revealed that Power was very likely not to have suffered a concussion, so the original diagnosis was withdrawn on Wednesday after the race. The diagnosis was made more difficult on the race weekend because Power had started racing with an inner ear infection. The doctors eventually stated that Power's health problems were caused by tension in the neck muscles. Power was still rated as a pole setter and kept the bonus point. The first place on the grid for the race went to second-placed Pagenaud, as Servià was able to take over Powers vehicle, but had to start the race from last place due to the driver change.

Final training

In the final training, Takuma Satō drove the fastest lap ahead of Rahal and Josef Newgarden .

run

At the start, Pagenaud kept Montoya's lead and led the race safely in the early stages. At the first stops, he was leading Montoya by about five seconds and kept the lead throughout. Montoya then caught up with Pagenaud and reduced the gap to less than a second.

The first yellow phase occurred on lap 46 after Marco Andretti Filippi had driven into the rear at the end of the start-finish straight, turned and stopped. Both drivers drove on. With the exception of Daly and Kanaan, all drivers pitted in the caution phase, so that Daly was finally in front of Kanaan, Pagenaud and Montoya. During the caution phase, Newgarden gave up with technical problems and Mikhail Aleshin and Filippi had to go to the end of the field because of a stop in the closed pit lane.

At the restart, Kanaan tried to pass Daly, but stayed in second place. Montoya overtook Pagenaud and took third place. There was a pile-up behind it when Carlos Muñoz tried to overtake Charlie Kimball and misjudged himself in the process, so that he turned Rahal and the two vehicles blocked the route. Rahal saw the blame for the accident at Muñoz and was very upset about his driving style after the race. Muñoz took the blame and apologized for the incident. He was given a stop-and-go penalty. A total of eight vehicles were involved in the collision. Everyone resumed the race. Kanaan pitted, moving Montoya to second. Hawksworth received a drive-through penalty for driving into the closed pit lane.

On the lap after the restart, Montoya passed Daly in the lead. Daly was then several laps between the Penske drivers Montoya and Pagenaud in second place. Daly finally pitted before the two rivals and fell far behind with a front wing damage and an additional stop as the race progressed. On the 82nd lap, Montoya and Pagenaud went to the last stop at the same time, so that Hunter-Reay took the lead for three laps. At the pits there was no change between Montoya and Pagenaud, which eventually gave Montoya the lead again. In the 87th Bourdais was eliminated.

In the closing stages, Montoya controlled the race at the front, although he had steering problems. There was a change on the podium with three laps to go when Castroneves was overtaken by Hunter-Reay, so there was no Penske triple victory.

Montoya repeated his victory from the previous year on this route. Pagenaud was second ahead of Hunter-Reay and Castroneves. Aleshin finished fifth. With twelve positions in the race, he had made up the most positions compared to his starting position. Satō was sixth ahead of Dixon, who had cooling problems. The top 10 were completed by Muñoz, Kanaan and Kimball, who was canceled in the final round after an accident. All other drivers had already been lapped, so Kimball kept tenth place. Rossi was the best newcomer in twelfth place.

Registration list

All teams and drivers used the Dallara DW12 chassis and Firestone tires .

team	No.	driver	Aero kit / engine
Team Penske	02	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chevrolet
	03	Helio Castroneves
	12	Will power
		Oriol Servià
	22nd	Simon Pagenaud
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	05	James Hinchcliffe	Honda
	07th	Mikhail Aleshin
Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	08th	Max Chilton	Chevrolet
	09	Scott Dixon
	10	Tony Kanaan
	83	Charlie Kimball
KVSH Racing	11	Sébastien Bourdais	Chevrolet
AJ Foyt Enterprises	14th	Takuma Satō	Honda
	41	Jack Hawksworth
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15th	Graham Rahal	Honda
	16	Spencer Pigot
Dale Coyne Racing	18th	Conor Daly	Honda
	19th	Luca Filippi
Ed Carpenter Racing	21st	Josef Newgarden	Chevrolet
Andretti Autosport	26th	Carlos Muñoz	Honda
	27	Marco Andretti
	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian	98	Alexander Rossi

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Will Power drove the first three training sessions and took part in qualifying. Oriol Servià contested the final training and the race because of a Powers illness.

Source:

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	team	vehicle	Group 1	Group 2	Top 12	FF6	begin
01	Will power	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	1: 00.5678	1: 00.0658	1: 00.2450	WD
02	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	1: 00.6503	1: 00.3805	1: 00.4421	01
03	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	1: 00.7320	1: 00.5168	1: 00.4995	02
04th	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	1: 00.7060	1: 00.4431	1: 00.5312	03
05	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	1: 00.8921	-	1: 00.2318	1: 00.5395	04th
06th	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Honda	-	1: 00.9830	1: 00.5530	1: 00.8803	05
07th	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Dallara - Honda	1: 00.9578	-	1: 00.5893	-	06th
08th	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	1: 01.1450	-	1: 00.6711	-	07th
09	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara - Honda	1: 00.9973	-	1: 00.6724	-	08th
10	Jack Hawksworth	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara - Honda	1: 01.1322	-	1: 00.7188	-	09
11	Takuma Satō	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara - Honda	-	1: 00.7920	1: 00.9745	-	10
12	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	1: 01.0836	-	1: 01.0571	-	11
13	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Honda	1: 01.1856	-	-	-	12
14th	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	1: 01.0433	-	-	13
15th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Honda	1: 01.2417	-	-	-	14th
16	Luca Filippi	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	-	1: 01.1699	-	-	15th
17th	Max Chilton	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	1: 01.5372	-	-	-	16
18th	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara - Honda	-	1: 01.2934	-	-	17th
19th	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian	Dallara - Honda	1: 01.5794	-	-	-	18th
20th	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	1: 01.3414	-	-	19th
21st	Conor Daly	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	1: 01.9385	-	-	-	20th
22nd	Spencer Pigot	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Dallara - Honda	-	1: 01.3881	-	-	21st
-	Oriol Servià	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	-	-	-	-	22nd

Swell:

run

Item	driver	team	vehicle	Round	time	begin	Leadership laps
01	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	110	2: 13: 28.4650	03	44
02	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	110	+ 2.3306	01	48
03	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Honda	110	+ 8.8764	05	03
04th	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	110	+ 9.3237	02	00
05	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara - Honda	110	+ 9.7167	17th	00
06th	Takuma Satō	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara - Honda	110	+ 26.0373	10	00
07th	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	110	+ 40.7056	04th	00
08th	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Honda	110	+ 55.9459	12	00
09	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	110	+ 59.1202	19th	00
10	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	109	DNF	13	00
11	Jack Hawksworth	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	09	00
12	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	18th	00
13	Conor Daly	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	20th	15th
14th	Spencer Pigot	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	21st	00
15th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	14th	00
16	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	06th	00
17th	Max Chilton	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams	Dallara - Chevrolet	109	+ 1 lap	16	00
18th	Oriol Servià	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	109	+ 1 lap	22nd	00
19th	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara - Honda	109	+ 1 lap	08th	00
20th	Luca Filippi	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	108	+ 2 rounds	15th	00
21st	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	087	DNF	07th	00
22nd	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	047	DNF	11	00

Swell:

Guide sections

section	Round	driver
1	1-48	Simon Pagenaud
2	49-63	Conor Daly
3	64-81	Juan Pablo Montoya
4th	82-84	Ryan Hunter-Reay
5	85-110	Juan Pablo Montoya

Swell:

Yellow phases

No.	Duration	Round	Reason for yellow phase
1	46-55	10	Contact: Luca Filippi (# 19) and Marco Andretti (# 27) in turn 1
2	57-62	6th	Contact: Various vehicles in turn 4

Swell:

Score after the race

Driver ranking

The allocation of points is explained here .

Item driver Points 01.  Juan Pablo Montoya 51 02.  Simon Pagenaud 43 03.  Ryan Hunter-Reay 36 04th  Helio Castroneves 32 05.  Mikhail Aleshin 30th 06th  Takuma Satō 28 07th  Scott Dixon 26th 08th.  Carlos Muñoz 24

Item driver Points 09.  Tony Kanaan 22nd 10.  Charlie Kimball 20th 11.  Jack Hawksworth 19th 12.  Alexander Rossi 18th 13.  Conor Daly 18th 14th  Spencer Pigot 16 15th  Marco Andretti 15th 16.  Graham Rahal 14th

Item driver Points 17th  Max Chilton 13 18th  Oriol Servià 12 19th  James Hinchcliffe 11 20th  Luca Filippi 10 21st  Sébastien Bourdais 9 22nd  Josef Newgarden 8th 23.  Will power 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tony DiZinno: Spencer Pigot to step up to IndyCar with RLL Racing. nbcsports.com, October 20, 2015, accessed January 2, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Edd Straw: Ex-F1 driver Max Chilton joins Ganassi for 2016 IndyCar season. autosport.com, February 1, 2016, accessed February 1, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Edd Straw: Ex-F1 driver Max Chilton joins Ganassi for 2016 IndyCar season. autosport.com, February 1, 2016, accessed February 1, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Conor Daly gets full-time Dale Coyne Racing IndyCar deal for 2016. autosport.com, December 11, 2015, accessed January 2, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Luca Filippi gets Dale Coyne Racing IndyCar seat for St Petersburg. autosport.com, March 9, 2016, accessed March 11, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Chris Lugert: IndyCar - Fisher and Hartman leave CFH Racing. Carpenter sole team owner. Motorsport-Magazin.com, January 30, 2016, accessed March 11, 2016 . 
7. ^ Bruce Martin: Andretti Autosport to run Bryan Herta's IndyCar in expanded line-up. autosport.com, February 18, 2016, accessed March 11, 2016 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Arni Sribhen: Inside the Box Score: St. Petersburg. indycar.com, March 15, 2016, accessed April 2, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice 1. imscdn.com, March 11, 2016, accessed March 12, 2016 . 
10. ^ Pagenaud leads opening St. Petersburg practice. indycar.com, March 11, 2016, accessed March 12, 2016 . 
11. ^ St Petersburg IndyCar: Penske's Simon Pagenaud tops first practice. autosport.com, March 11, 2016, accessed March 12, 2016 . 
12. ↑ Gerald Dirnbeck: Honda safe: gap to Chevrolet closed. Motorsport-Total.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 13, 2016 . 
13. ↑ St Petersburg IndyCar: Penske driver Power fastest in practice two. autosport.com, March 11, 2016, accessed March 12, 2016 . 
14. ↑ Power recovers from mishap to pace St. Petersburg practice. (No longer available online.) Indycar.com, March 11, 2016, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 12, 2016 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
15. ↑ Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice 2. imscdn.com, March 11, 2016, accessed March 12, 2016 . 
16. ↑ Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg - Results of Session - Practice 3. imscdn.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 13, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Power tosses down gauntlet in final St. Pete practice before qualifying. indycar.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 13, 2016 . 
18. ^ St Petersburg IndyCar: Will Power fastest again in third practice. autosport.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 13, 2016 . 
19. ↑ Gerald Dirnbeck: IndyCar St. Petersburg: Four Penske in qualifying ahead. Motorsport-Total.com, March 13, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
20. ^ St Petersburg IndyCar: Will Power leads Penske qualifying sweep. autosport.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
21. ↑ Qualifying master Power wins sixth St. Pete pole position. indycar.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
22. ↑ Gerald Dirnbeck: Will power sick: Oriol Servia jumps in the warm-up. Motorsport-Total.com, March 13, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
23. ↑ Bruce Martin: Power misses St Petersburg IndyCar race, diagnosed with concussion. autosport.com, March 13, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
24. ^ No evidence that Will Power sustained concussion, says IndyCar. autosport.com, March 16, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
25. ↑ Bruce Martin: Penske explains slow diagnosis of Will Power's IndyCar concussion. autosport.com, March 14, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
26. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: Will Power: Muscle Tension Cause of Headaches? Motorsport-Total.com, March 18, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
27. ↑ Bruce Martin: Will Power on medication ahead of return to IndyCar testing. autosport.com, March 16, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
28. ^ Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg. imscdn.com, March 13, 2016, accessed March 28, 2016 (English). 
29. ↑ Sato leads St. Pete warmup; Servia fills in for power. indycar.com, March 13, 2016, accessed March 28, 2016 . 
30. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} St Petersburg IndyCar: Montoya leads Pagenaud home in Penske 1-2. autosport.com, March 13, 2016, accessed April 2, 2016 . 
31. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Ruben Zimmermann: St. Petersburg: Juan Pablo Montoya wins the season opener. Motorsport-Total.com, March 13, 2016, accessed April 2, 2016 . 
32. ↑ ^{a b} Montoya repeats trip to St. Pete Victory Lane. indycar.com, March 13, 2016, accessed April 2, 2016 . 
33. ↑ Bruce Martin: Rahal slams 'brain-dead' Munoz for St Petersburg IndyCar pile-up. autosport.com, March 14, 2016, accessed April 2, 2016 . 
34. ↑ “Entry List - Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 9, 2016, accessed on March 11, 2016 . 
35. ↑ Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - QUALIFYING RESULTS. (PDF) imscdn.com, March 12, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
36. ↑ ^{a b c} “OFFICIAL BOX SCORE - Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 13, 2016, accessed on March 20, 2016 (English). 
37. ^ “Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Unofficial Lap Report”. (PDF) indycar.com, March 13, 2016, accessed on March 20, 2016 (English).