GP of St. Pete 2016 Indycar

The 2016 Indycar Season has begun

in a replay of the 2015 season

with Juan Pablo Montoya winning

the GP of St. Petersburg!
Giving Team Penske it's 8th win at the season opening street course.

 

 

 

Will Power suffered a wreck in practice Friday then went out to qualify on Saturday feeling quite ill, and still managed to set a new track record and qualify for his 34th career pole!

 

Unfortunately, Power was too sick to race on Sunday and was diagnosed with a mild concussion (although after extensive testing they found he didn't have a concussion.)  Oriol Servia filled in on very short notice, joking that he had waited 15 years to drive for Roger Penske and he had hoped to have a little practice in the car before the race.  Oriol finished 18th.

At the start of the race, Simon Pagenaud led for almost half the race, and then at around lap 57, a multi-car wreck happened and a caution brought strategy into play.  After more cautions, the lead gave way to rookie Conor Daly, who then led 15 laps, only to be passed on a restart by Juan Montoya, which ultimately decided the race.  A Penske 1-2-3 sweep was broken up when Ryan Hunter-Reay passed Helio Castroneves near the final 5 laps, giving a podium and a great season opener to Honda and Andretti Autosport.  Juan Montoya took his 2nd consecutive win at St Pete.  Can he repeat his success from last season, but this time win the championship?

 

The Top Ten

(At the end of the race, there were only 10 drivers on the lead lap.)

 

1. Juan Montoya: 2nd career St Pete win

2. Simon Pagenaud:  Led 48 of 110 laps and almost had the pole.

3. Ryan Hunter-Reay: Highest finishing Honda, American, and Andretti driver

4. Helio Castroneves: His 5th Top 5 in last 5 races at St. Pete

5. Mikael Aleshin: First race since his crash at Fontana in 2014

6. Takuma Sato: Best finish at St Pete since 2011

7. Scott Dixon:  A win at St. Pete still eludes him but he finished 15th last year so can an even better start to the season lead to another championship?

8. Carlos Munoz: Gives Andretti Autosport  two top-ten finishes to start the year

9. Tony Kanaan: 11th top ten in 12 starts at St Pete.

10. Charlie Kimball: 2nd top ten at St Pete

 

 

In the Top Ten

 

---5 different teams---

 

-Team Penske (3)

-Andretti Autosport (2)

-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

-AJ Foyt Racing 

-Target Chip Ganassi (3)

 

---7 different countries represented---

-Colombia (2)

-France

-USA (2)

- Brazil (2)

Russia

Japan

New Zealand

 

---5 Chevys & 4 Hondas

 

Race Stuff

2 Cautions (tied record for lowest number at St. Pete)

16 laps under yellow

4 different race leaders

Average Race Speed 89.006 mph

2.3306 Margin of Victory

Highest Finishing Rookie Alexander Rossi in 12th

 

Disappointments

 

Tough way to start the season for Will Power, but it will be fun to see if he can make a comeback and still run for the Championship.

 

Great to see James Hinchcliffe back in an Indycar but hated to see him have trouble on the first lap and never have a chance to contend.  (he finished 19th).

 

Although Conor Daly led 15 laps near mid race, he ended up finishing13th.

 

and we would be remiss to not mention that our Alexandra's very favorite driver, Josef Newgarden suffered electrical issues and finished.......Last.  (it was a very sad day for her). 

But, at least he had the fastest lap  of the race 104.129 mph on the 42nd lap!