Round 3: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, 13-15 April.

[NaBUru38]

Rossi totally owned the race.

I still can't get over the fact that drivers like Binner and ZCD were selected over Urrutia.

The top 3 drivers in the standings are American.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result:

Honda definitely had the edge over Chevrolet all weekend, resulting in the win for Rossi and 5 cars in the top 6. Despite RH-R's woes, that was a good result for Andretti Autosport/Herta, with three cars in the top 6. The 6th place must be Marco Andretti's best finish for a while.

1 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 85. 1h53m15.2434s
2 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 1.2413s
3 Ed Jones, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 9.2906s
4 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 85. 10.1050s
5 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 85. 10.7466s
6 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 85. 11.5513s
7 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 12.2175s
8 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 16.1048s
9 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 85. 16.4757s
10 Charlie Kimball, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 17.0119s
11 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 17.3301s
12 Jack Harvey, Michael Shank Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 18.3469s
13 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 85. 18.9443s
14 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 85. 18.9466s
15 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
16 Kyle Kaiser, Juncos Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
17 Max Chilton, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
18 Jordan King, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 84. 1 Lap
19 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 83. 2 Laps
20 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 81. 4 Laps
21 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 74. 11 Laps
22 Robert Wickens, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 73. 12 Laps
23 Zachary Claman, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 58. Contact
24 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0. Contact

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I still can't get over the fact that drivers like Binner and ZCD were selected over Urrutia.

Budget talks.

[Speedblood]

Quite an entertaining race, Rossi did a Dixon at Watkins Glen a couple of years ago and basically ran away and hid. When Power, Bourdais and Dixon weren't able to catch him for most of the race you know it was a compelling performance. The team were smart as well to take a no risk strategy and use his performance instead.

The start definitely needs to be sorted, when only the front 8 cars or so are lined up and the rest of the field is trailing it's way around the last 2 bends it leads to a very strung out start.

Glad Jones was able to redress the Phoenix crash with a podium, Veach did very well too.
Anyone else notice a very racy Kanaan as well?
Good to see Carlin get a top 10, hopefully it's a step forward to more regular competitive performances.

[nezy37]

Originally Posted by Speedblood

Quite an entertaining race, Rossi did a Dixon at Watkins Glen a couple of years ago and basically ran away and hid. When Power, Bourdais and Dixon weren't able to catch him for most of the race you know it was a compelling performance. The team were smart as well to take a no risk strategy and use his performance instead.

The start definitely needs to be sorted, when only the front 8 cars or so are lined up and the rest of the field is trailing it's way around the last 2 bends it leads to a very strung out start.

Glad Jones was able to redress the Phoenix crash with a podium, Veach did very well too.
Anyone else notice a very racy Kanaan as well?
Good to see Carlin get a top 10, hopefully it's a step forward to more regular competitive performances.

Tony has been quite strong all year, at least compared to foyts performance over the last 5 6 years or so. It's good to see, I wonder how much tk's input has done for the team or if they're just getting stronger in general. Given leists performance I tend to think it's the former. He's been running around in standard foyt fashion.

[Purist]

Getting only the first 2-3 rows formed up for the start has been normal at Long Beach for ages. Given just how slow that hairpin is, the only proper fix would be to extend the corner further toward the intersection with Ocean so that they have more straight before the start/finish line.

Long Beach and St. Petersburg aren't that dissimilar on average lap speed. If anything, the carpark section at St. Pete is tighter/more confined than the one at Long Beach.

Unfortunately, I don't think the link road is there anymore; otherwise, I'd suggest going back to the 1999 layout to improve the racing. Putting that aside, I think they should do like CART had it, and not have the curbing at Turn 4.

[RWill2073]

I was just able to watch the race tonight. I thought it was an entertaining and good race. Some disappointments, like bourdais' result, getting caught out by the yellow, the pass penalized, pagenaud being knocked out in turn one. And the commercials, which ESPN has now spoiled me on.

But, a fun race, and I did notice kanaan pass Newgarden at one point and was surprised. Rahal owning up to the incident and no argument over penalty was nice to see. His recovery was good as well, but flew under the radar in the coverage. Rossi looks like he's in that rarified air of the elite right now.

Bourdais still 4th in championship despite bad luck, he might make a run at a 5th even with the limitations. I don't know that I've ever seen him look as good as he is right now. That pass had the two former racers in the booth in awe. All Townsend bell could do is laugh. To be doing stuff like that and last week at his age, after what happened last year, is amazing.

[NaBUru38]

During the first half of the race, the TV director missed several overtakes, and selected random cameras. I felt like ABC was back.

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

During the first half of the race, the TV director missed several overtakes, and selected random cameras. I felt like ABC was back.

It felt like an old alms broadcast as Newgarden pulled alongside power for a pass... And the camera switched to some random corner where it was a second or two before a car showed up.