Round 5: IndyCar Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 11th-13th May.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 5: IndyCar Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 11th-13th May.

This year will be the fourth runing of the event, though the start of each race so far, hasn't been without incident. The innaugural race in 2014 featured a standing start but pole sitter Sebastián Saavedra stalled as the lights went out and his car was hit by Carlos Munoz and Mikhail Aleshin, showering the track with carbon-fibre and forcing a restart. It was eventually won by Simon Pagenaud, driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. It was therefore 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 restart.

Last year, after the start and as the field moved into the Turn 1, Tony Kanaan collected Sébastien Bourdais on the outside of the corner, bringing out the first caution of the race. The race restarted after four laps under the yellow. Apart from a second caution period on lap 37, when Bourdais came to a halt on the track, the rest of the race was incident free and was won by Simon Pagenaud, for Team Penske, who had led from the start.

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:
Simon Pagenaud, May 13, 2016. 1:08.68, 127.832 Mph (205.725 Km/h). Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6. Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's race:
Pole: Simon Pagenaud. 1:08.68, 127.832 mph (205.725 km/h)
Winner: Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Laps: 82
Distance: 199.998 Miles (321.85 Km)
Race Time: 1:50:18.58
Average Speed: 108.784 Mph (175.07 Km/h)
Caution periods: 2
Caution laps: 10

Race broadcast:
ABC. 13th May, 3:30pm ET.