Round 5: IndyCar Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 10-12 May.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 5: IndyCar Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 10-12 May.

This year will be the fifth runing of the event and apart from last year, the start of each race hasn't been without incident. The inaugural race in 2014 featured a standing start but pole sitter Saavedra stalled as the lights went out and his car was hit by Munoz and Aleshin, showering the track with carbon-fibre and forcing a restart. It was decided that for 2015, the race would have a conventional rolling start. However, several cars came together at Turn 1, though this didn't lead to restart. In 2016 after the start and as the field moved into the Turn 1, Kanaan collected Bourdais on the outside of the corner, bringing out the first caution of the race. The race restarted after four laps under yellow.

The track is a modified layout of the circuit that was previously used for the F1 United States Grand Prix, held from 2000 - 2007 and which is currently used by the MotoGP, Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. The race is run clockwise, the opposite direction to the Indianapolis 500.

Layout:
Motorcycle Course


IndyCar Road Course


Length:
2.439 Miles (3.925 Km)
Turns: 14

Lap record:
Will Power, May 12, 2017. 1:07.704, 129.69 mph (208.44 km/h).
Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6. Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's race:

Last year Power took pole and at the start of the race, the field made its way cleanly through the first few corners. Power held the lead over Castroneves, while Dixon moved into third. However, at Turn 7 Andretti made contact with Kanaan, putting Kanaan into a spin and sending Andretti and Jones into the grass. Kanaan was forced to pit with a punctured tyre, while Andretti was given a drive-thru penalty for avoidable contact. Surprisingly, the race resumed without a caution. On lap four, Bourdais pulled off at turn 1, with an engine failure forcing him to retire, allowing Rossi to move into the top sixth. By lap 17, both Hunter-Reay and Pigot had got around Rossi.

The first round of pit stops came on lap 20. Castroneves, who had stayed on the red alternate tyres, was able to move ahead of Power, who had switched to the black primary tires. Dixon remained third, while Newgarden, Hunter-Reay and Pagenaud completed the top six. Pigot, who made been on a charge towards the front, stalled his car during the stops dropping him down the order. Shortly after the stops, Pagenaud was being caught by Hinchcliffe, Rossi, and Max Chilton. Hinchcliffe, however faded from the battle after both Rossi and Chilton overtook him on the same lap. Pagenaud remained in sixth.

The second round of stops came just after lap 40. During which, Power and Castroneves swapped positions again, thanks to Power switching to the alternate tires. Further down the field Graham Rahal, who started 20th, had a good run through the field and he was up to sixth. At the same time, Rossi began to drop back due to his primary tires going off and was caught by Montoya.

The final round of stops came at roughly lap 65. Power and Castroneves remained first and second but Castroneves, now on the primary tyres, was considerably slower. During the stops, Newgarden was given a drive-thru penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, losing fourth place. He was then given another drive-thru penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, while serving the first penalty. This allowed Hunter-Reay to move up to fourth and Pagenaud to fifth. Meanwhile, Power began to pull away from Castroneves, while Dixon rapidly gained on him and on lap 69 overtook Castroneves for second place. Castroneves was then quickly passed by both Hunter-Reay and Pagenaud and dropped to fifth.

Power went on to win his 30th IndyCar race, putting him into the top five in the championship. Pagenaud maintained the points lead, with a 10-point advantage over Dixon. For the first time, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis saw no caution periods.

Pole:
Will Power, 1:07.704, 129.69 mph (208.44 km/h)
Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Winner:
Will Power,
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Laps: 85
Distance: 207.315 Miles (333.641 km)
Race Time: 1:42:58
Average Speed: 120.813 Mph (194.429 km/h)
Caution periods: 0
Caution laps: 0

This year's race broadcast:
ABC. 12 May, 3:30pm ET.

[fieldodreams79]

It's a race in May at Indy but it's not the 500! I've never watched this race, but I hope to catch it, even though it's mother's day weekend and I'm not in charge....

And I've always liked this roval.

Great post#1 as always, BJS!

[S griffin]

This is a warm up to the Indy 500. Should be a good race, at least this circuit has some quirks

Thanks for the intro to get us to speed

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying

Power pips Wickens to get pole.

1 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m09.8182s
2 Robert Wickens, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m09.9052s. 0.0870s
3 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m09.9449s. 0.1267s
4 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.0858s. 0.2676s
5 Jordan King, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.1326s. 0.3144s
6 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.7276s. 0.9094s
7 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.0382s
8 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.1062s
9 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.1601s
10 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.1847s
11 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.1979s
12 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.3592s
13 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.0985s
14 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.1044s
15 Ed Jones, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.2859s
16 Max Chilton, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.2113s
17 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.3605s
18 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.3221s
19 Zachary Claman, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.5064s
20 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m10.3371s
21 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.6425s
22 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.5066s
23 Charlie Kimball, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.7784s
24 Kyle Kaiser, Juncos Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m10.7394s

[NaBUru38]

Damn. ESPN has four channel in South America, and they are busy with French and Dutch football, golf and tennis.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I've got a feed from ABC but no motorsport of any description.

Edit: Finally, so much for the schedule on Indycar.com's web site.

[tux]

Harsh criticism of Jordan King by the commentators imo, not sure he did all that much wrong

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a bit untidy and Jordan King goes off at Turn 2 and Spencer Piggot in the other Ed Carpenter car also goes off, in sympathy.

First FCY

[tux]

Really surprised that Pigot didn’t get any obvious suspension damage, he got so high and when he landed there was so much deflection

[bjohnsonsmith]

Power just got ahead of Wickens. Great job by his pit crew.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

Struggling to keep interest. Hardly any fights on track at all.

[tux]

Not much on track action but with the strategy permutations there’s enough intrigue. Think Powers got Wickens now. Desperately don’t want a Yellow.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

Well yes, the strategy part is already done. Power will breeze past Wickens and win.

And it's hardly strategy anyway because of the dumb rule you need to use both tyres.

[Armco Bender]

Struggling to keep interest. Hardly any fights on track at all.

Same here,hardly 2 cars in the same frame on TV...finger on remote....F1 replay on the next channel.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

Has there been a single pass for position where both guys were on the same tyre?

[tux]

Newgarden may not be mr popular with Roger Penske if Power loses this.

[Armco Bender]

We got the ESPN feed down here.....10 minutes of adverts and then 1 minute of racing.I don't know how you put up with this in the USA.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by tux

Newgarden may not be mr popular with Roger Penske if Power loses this.

If Power loses the race, why would that effect Newgarden's popularity with Roger Penske? Newgarden is the current championship leader. Though spinning the car and stalling it like that, might have more of an effect.

Second FCY.

[tux]

It was more a tongue in cheek comment rather than a serious one. Power had this won without a yellow.

Dixon had some great pace on the reds, setting a 10.5 fastest lap.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Power beats Wickens off pit road again but it was close.

[Armco Bender]

Yes....let it rain.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a nice move by Newgarden.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

I don't think I'll bother watching more IndyCar races this year besides the 500. That was pretty dreadful.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by EffectiveSprinkles

I don't think I'll bother watching more IndyCar races this year besides the 500. That was pretty dreadful.

It's never been a particularly good race but I'm looking forward to the rest of the season's races, like TMS, Detroit, Toronto and the return to Portland.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Power, he drove well and really needed that win. Congrats to Penske on 200 IndyCar victories. Good to Castroneves finish 6th. Otherwise, that was a rather tedious race.