Round 4: Sonsio Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. May 10 - 11.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 4: Sonsio Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. May 10 - 11

This weekend kicks off The Month of May, with the 10th running of the race.

.

History
On October 1, 2013, after a feasibility test in September, it was announced that an IndyCar race for 2014 would be held on the GP Circuit, either as a "doubleheader" event in May prior to the Indy 500, or as a stand-alone race in the fall. Up until the announcement IndyCar hadn't raced on the F1 GP Circuit, though Indy Lights had four times.

The inaugural race was held on May 10, 2014 and was won by Simon Pagenaud, driving a Dallara DW12- Honda HI14RTT for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. The race featured a standing start, which was not without incident, when Pole sitter Sebastián Saavedra stalled as the lights went out and his car was hit by Carlos Munoz's and Mikhail Aleshin's cars, showering the track with carbon-fibre and forcing a restart.

It was decided that from 2015 onwards the race would have a conventional rolling start. Despite the change, the start of each race has been barely without incident, the exceptions being 2017, 2020 and last year.

In 2019 GMR, Global Medical Response, parent company of AMR, American Medical Response, signed a multi-year agreement to become the title sponsor of the race.

In 2020, as part of the revised schedule due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the race was moved forward to July 4 but held with no spectators. A second event, the Harvest Grand Prix, was added to the race calendar and held at the IMS Grand Prix circuit, from October 1-3. It was also the fifth double-header of the 2020 season. The following year, the GMR Grand Prix was back in it's usual place on the calendar

Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic, the only other disruption to the race was in 2022, when it was delayed by approximately 45 minutes, due to lightning and shortened by the two-hour time limit.

On November 1, 2023, Sonsio Vehicle Protection was announced as the title sponsor of the event replacing GMR.

-

Some trivia:
Driver with the most wins:
Will Power: 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021

Team with the most wins:
Team Penske: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021.

-

Track layout
The layout is a modified version of the one previously used for the F1 United States Grand Prix, which was held from 2000 - 2007 and by MotoGP from 2008 to 2015. The race is run clockwise, the opposite direction to the Indianapolis 500.

F1 Course: 2000-2007


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:
https://www.indycar.com/news/2023/05/05-13-gmrgp-race

Pole:
Christian Lundgaard,
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT Indy V-6

Winner:
Alex Palou,
Ed Carpenter Racing,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT Indy V-6

Laps: 85
Distance: 207.315 Miles / 333.641 km
Race Time: 1:47:08.5773
Average Speed: 115.234 mph (185.451 km/h)
Fastest Lap: Alex Palou - Chip Ganassi Racing. Lap 8, 71.2912 sec. 123.162 mph, (198.210 km/h)

Caution periods: 1
Laps: 3

-

Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1- Friday, May 10. 9:30 - 10:45 AM ET

Practice 2 - Friday, May 10. 1:10 - 2:10 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1, Group 1. Friday, May 10. 4:20 - 4:30 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1, Group 2. Friday, May 10. 4:45 - 4:55 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 2. Friday, May 10. 5:10 - 5:20 PM ET

Qualifications - Firestone Fast 6. Friday, May 10. 5:35 - 5:50 PM ET

-

Race broadcast:
NBC, Peacock, 11 May, 3:00pm ET, 7:00pm UTC, 8:00pm BST
Sky Sports F1, 8:00pm BST