Simon Pagenaud claims third straight IndyCar win at Indianapolis
Simon Pagenaud extended his IndyCar championship lead with his third consecutive win for Team Penske in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis
The Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park winner held a comfortable lead during the first half of the Indy road course race over fellow Dallara-Chevrolet driver Charlie Kimball and the Honda-powered James Hinchcliffe.
Pagenaud looked able to manage his advantage until a slow moving Sebastien Bourdais - who had already been in the wars when squeezed into the wall at the race start in Turn 1 by Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon - brought the yellow flags out just before half-distance.
Helio Castroneves, who had pitted under green flag conditions two laps previously, and Dale Coyne Racing's Conor Daly then found themselves at the front after the rest of the field cycled into the pits under the caution.
On the restart Daly stormed past Castroneves into Turn 1 and threatened to claim a first IndyCar win when he created a 2.8s gap on the Penske man.
But it wasn't to be for the Indianapolis home-hero, who was forced to take his final stop on lap 60 of 82, and found himself back into fourth after the rest of the field had pitted.
Pagenaud stayed out an extra lap over team-mate Castroneves, which was enough for the championship leader to reclaim the lead by more than 3s leaving the pits.
From there Pagenaud eased to the chequered flag with Castroneves and Schmidt Peterson's Hinchcliffe rounding out the podium.
Fourth went to Graham Rahal, who managed to steal a strong points finish despite starting from the back after his car was deemed underweight in post-qualifying scrutineering, while Kimball came home fifth.
Daly held on to finish sixth to take his best finish of the season, ahead of Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Montoya had struggled in qualifying and a pit exit infringement early on in the race left him in damage-limitation mode.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose off-strategy decision paid off when he vaulted eight positions at the start and remained in the top 10 mix despite a poor qualifying, took ninth.
Will Power was unable to fulfil his Friday practice speed when he spun under pressure from Alexander Rossi into the Turn 7 left-hander at the end of the infield straight early on. The Penske driver was left disappointed with 19th.
RESULTS - 82 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1h50m18.5823s |
2 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 4.4748s |
3 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 5.0807s |
4 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 7.0715s |
5 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 7.4234s |
6 | Conor Daly | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 12.1838s |
7 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 12.9226s |
8 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 13.6912s |
9 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 15.1933s |
10 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 16.3134s |
11 | Spencer Pigot | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 20.5172s |
12 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 29.6369s |
13 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 43.3094s |
14 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 43.3785s |
15 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 44.6339s |
16 | Matthew Brabham | Team Murray | Dallara/Chevrolet | 45.5107s |
17 | Gabby Chaves | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 47.0326s |
18 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 56.3389s |
19 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 57.4410s |
20 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m03.7229s |
21 | Josef Newgarden | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m08.6234s |
22 | J.R. Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1 Lap |
23 | Alex Tagliani | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1 Lap |
24 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | Mechanical |
25 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | Contact |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Simon Pagenaud | 242 |
2 | Scott Dixon | 166 |
3 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 160 |
4 | Helio Castroneves | 159 |
5 | Graham Rahal | 133 |
6 | Tony Kanaan | 111 |
7 | Charlie Kimball | 111 |
8 | James Hinchcliffe | 110 |
9 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 109 |
10 | Will Power | 105 |
11 | Takuma Sato | 102 |
12 | Josef Newgarden | 100 |
13 | Conor Daly | 88 |
14 | Mikhail Aleshin | 87 |
15 | Carlos Munoz | 84 |
16 | Max Chilton | 80 |
17 | Alexander Rossi | 79 |
18 | Marco Andretti | 76 |
19 | Sebastien Bourdais | 75 |
20 | Jack Hawksworth | 60 |
21 | Luca Filippi | 45 |
22 | Spencer Pigot | 35 |
23 | Matthew Brabham | 14 |
24 | Gabby Chaves | 13 |
25 | Oriol Servia | 12 |
26 | Ed Carpenter | 9 |
27 | J.R. Hildebrand | 8 |
28 | Alex Tagliani | 7 |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments