By Brian Bielanski, Editor
(RacingWire) – Dario Franchitti won the race but Simona De Silvestro stole the show.
Franchitti, the defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion, survived a host of early cautions and the newly instituted “double-file” restart rule to win the Honda St. Petersburg Grand Prix Sunday.
The race started with a six car pile-up in turn one leaving Marco Andretti's car upside down ending his day. Teammate Mike Conway, in his first race back after breaking his back in a horrific crash in last year's Indianapolis 500, was was also taken out in the crash. All six drivers were uninjured.
What ensued was an exciting and somewhat unskillful display of driving as the IndyCar Series tested one of it's new rules, double-file restarts. Breaking from open-wheel racing's traditional single file restarts. the new rule adds excitement and gives drivers a chance to pass more easily.
Some driver's learned the hard way that being over aggressive on the restarts can cost you or the cars around you a good finish.
On the flip side being aggressive can provide great gains on the leader board. Case in point, De Silvestro, who started 17th and soon found herself in second place. The sophomore driver stayed in the top four all day.
Most impressive for De Silvestro were the final 15 laps when she hounded series veteran Tony Kanaan for his third place spot. “We drove a conservative race until five laps to go and then Simona was all over me,”said Kanaan. “We chose to use the reds in the beginning and I knew that was going to hurt me a little bit at the end. We should have used the black tires in the second stint like they did because I knew she was going to be running hard at the end. But I am an old man and she is a young girl and I think the experience helped out today.”
"It was hard to pass because there was so much dust in the inside of the track,” said De Silvestro. “It was kind of a big risk to take to try to pass him so I was happy with fourth, but for sure I tried a couple of times. I couldn't make it. But, since he has been in the series such a long time and I was battling with him for most of the race, it was pretty fun."
The Swiss born De Silvestro finished fourth, her career best IndyCar performance.
Franichitti maintained a comfortable but not huge lead over the field for most of the race. Penske Racing's Will Power wasn't able to match Franchitti's pace on his way to a second place finish.
Franchitti was happy he picked up where he left off in 2010, “the caliber of teams and drivers that we are up against shows what the Target Chip Ganassi team did today. It is great to be here in the sunshine of St. Petersburg with the stands full and the Target car was running like a dream. I was focused on what Will Power was doing and that was a good moment when we got around him on the second restart. I thought we aren't going to win this Championship by just sitting back.”
The win is Franchitti's 27th in the series tying him with Johnny Rutherford for 10th on the all-time wins list. The win was also the 81st series victory for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Danica Patrick survived an eventful day needing three noses get to the checkered flag with a 12th place finish.
IZOD IndyCar Series
Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Results Sunday of the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg Street Circuit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (2) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
2. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
3. (8) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
4. (17) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
5. (11) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
6. (10) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
7. (16) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
8. (13) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
9. (15) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
10. (6) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
11. (24) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
12. (19) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 100, Running
13. (25) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 98, Running
14. (20) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 98, Running
15. (22) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 97, Running
16. (3) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 96, Running
17. (12) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 96, Running
18. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 95, Running
19. (21) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 94, Running
20. (9) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
21. (14) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 58, Handling
22. (23) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 38, Contact
23. (4) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 1, Contact
24. (7) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 0, Contact
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 89.260
Time of Race: 2:00:59.6886
Margin of victory: 7.1612 seconds
Cautions: 5 for 13 laps
Lead changes: 3 among 2 drivers
Lap Leaders:Power 1-4, Franchitti 5-70, Power 71-72, Franchitti 73 - 100.
Point Standings: Franchitti 52, Power 41, Kanaan 35, De Silvestro 32, Sato 30, Tagliani 28, Matos 26, Meira 24, Servia 22, Wilson 20.
