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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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

[joeb]

First practice is in the books and Herta led the way.

https://racer.com/2024/05/10/herta-e...y-gp-practice/

[broadrun96]

Indy giving Canapino some well earned love today, was quick in the practice sessions

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying Result

Last year's winner, Alex Palou takes pole and last year's pole sitter, Christian Lundgaard, joins him on the front row, with Penske team mates Will Power and Josef Newgarden on the second row. Overall a good showing from Chip Ganassi Racing, with all three drivers in the top 10.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Qualifying Result

Last year's winner, Alex Palou takes pole and last year's pole sitter, Christian Lundgaard, joins him on the front row, with Penske team mates Will Power and Josef Newgarden on the second row. Overall a good showing from Chip Ganassi Racing, with all three drivers in the top 10.

I was out all afternoon, what happened to Herta to be near the bottom?

[E.B]

Originally Posted by joeb

I was out all afternoon, what happened to Herta to be near the bottom?

They 'did a Ferrari' .... he ran out of fuel on his final flying lap during the first round of qualifying.

[Adam43]

I was out all afternoon, what happened to Stingy to be at the bottom?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by E.B

They 'did a Ferrari' .... he ran out of fuel on his final flying lap during the first round of qualifying.

Oh man, that is a big mistake!

Originally Posted by Adam43

I was out all afternoon, what happened to Stingy to be at the bottom?

He couldn't get a clean lap in traffic and then got slightly blocked on his only flier.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Turn 1 successfully negotiated, though some drivers further down the field took to the grass. Lungaard takes the lead.

[Adam43]

Just!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Newgarden pits after dropping down the field to 12th

[broadrun96]

Behind a bit but damn that's a mess to start. And Indy officials are completely a joke and mess, Ferrucci couldn't make the corner at all and threw Grosjean off at speed. Ericsson gets pinched over on his inside to push Colton and he gets 5 place. Every every every race I start to hate him more and more with his crying and team *****ing, just want engine failure every race for him now

[bjohnsonsmith]

A lucky break for Scotty Mac with the first FCY, as Ghiotto goes off.

[broadrun96]

Guess I'll catch the highlights later, can't stand the ass kissing and obsession with Herta. Dude is getting SPANKED this weekend, doing tell me he's a special driver. He's needed ALL his P2P AND fuel number to even get to the low teens, he's not the damn leader

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Guess I'll catch the highlights later, can't stand the ass kissing and obsession with Herta. Dude is getting SPANKED this weekend, doing tell me he's a special driver. He's needed ALL his P2P AND fuel number to even get to the low teens, he's not the damn leader

There are only 14 laps left, you might as well see it through.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Alex Palou on back to back wins at IMS.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Race Result

Not an exciting race. It seemed to lack something. Maybe a lot of drivers/teams were holding back and waiting for the 500 to get underway.

A excellent weekend for CGR. All three drivers qualified in the top ten and all three finished in the top 5, with Alex Palou taking pole and winning the race.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Race Result

Not an exciting race. It seemed to lack something. Maybe a lot of drivers/teams were holding back and waiting for the 500 to get underway.

A excellent weekend for CGR. All three drivers qualified in the top ten and all three finished in the top 5, with Alex Palou taking pole and winning the race.

I had to watch on delay, and I agree, the race held my attention but not a lot happened after the first frantic 5 laps or so.

And CGR has 4 drivers with Linus finishing off the lead lap, one race after a podium.

Palou is amazing, and I always love that a win equals fried chicken for him! I hoped Lundgaard was going to be able to hold on to a victory, but Alex was just too good.

One other thought I had today. Ganassi and Penske are the best teams, I don't think that is an argument, but who is next? Andretti? I would have said McLaren previously but last season and this season makes me actually want to now put Rahal ahead of them.

[flatlandsman]

I think Palou at times makes this series look very average in terms of talent, you hate to think what a top level ex F1 guy would do here.

I know that is very simplistic based on Grosjean, but in fairness he was batting out of his crease for nearly a decade!!

What annoyed me is the US comms team endlessly going on about him doing so well on the black tyre, then when Lundgaard only dropped a tiny amount on the same they did not even notice! They just went on about how garbage Newgarden was!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by joeb

And CGR has 4 drivers with Linus finishing off the lead lap, one race after a podium.

I keep forgetting about Linus being part of the driver line up and there is also Kyffin, so 5.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I keep forgetting about Linus being part of the driver line up and there is also Kyffin, so 5.

And I forgot about Simpson!

[NaBUru38]

I sat in front of the TV for the whole race, but had to take care of family issues.

Officiating seems very uneven. Ferrucci pushed Grosjean off-track and no action was taken. If every driver did that, none would finish the race on four wheels.

[broadrun96]

That was my complaint, feels like Indy has the chosen ones and contact is ignored. All series have the issue but it feels more striking in Indy, F1 is trying desperately to catch up with Indy in that respect though

[joeb]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I sat in front of the TV for the whole race, but had to take care of family issues.

Officiating seems very uneven. Ferrucci pushed Grosjean off-track and no action was taken. If every driver did that, none would finish the race on four wheels.

I agree and in the last 2 races there has been a lot of contact while passing. It is amazing these cars can take the abuse without failures.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Ferrucci pushed Grosjean off-track and no action was taken. If every driver did that, none would finish the race on four wheels.

To be fair they both still had four wheels.