2012 São Paulo Indy 300
The Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle in 2012 took place on April 29, held at the São Paulo Street Circuit in São Paulo, Brazil and was the fourth race of the IndyCar Series season of 2012.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race 3.2.1 guiding portions
- 3.2.2 yellow phase
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Manufacturers' Championship
Reports
Background
After the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Will Power led the Drivers' Championship with 24 points ahead of Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon on 27 points. At the engine manufacturers Chevrolet led with 9 points ahead of Honda and with 15 points, ahead of Lotus.
Before Indy Honda introduced an update to its turbocharged engine. Unlike Chevrolet and Lotus used Honda no twin-turbo, but a single- turbo engine. For the sake of equality Honda could modify the air inlet. Originally, the update was already planned for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but Chevrolet before a protest. Also this weekend protested Chevrolet against the update. On May 11, the appeal was dismissed in the last instance. Honda was therefore able to deny all subsequent races with the update. John Barnes, the team boss of Panther Racing criticized this approach in the course of the race weekend with snide remarks about his Twitter account. IndyCar took him then with a fine of U.S. $ 25,000, and said a suspended sentence for the rest of the season out.
Compared to the last race there were changes in the starting field: Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb Agajanian with Alex Tagliani took no part in this Indy. The team wanted to concentrate on the upcoming Indianapolis 500. In addition, it would have the travel expenses have to carry yourself, because the series took only the travel costs for the first 22 pilots overall. It remained at 26 pilots, as Ana Beatriz returned at Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series. The team sat in this race a fourth vehicle.
With Power (twice), the winner of all previous races went to Indy for this.
Training
Due to the location of the track in the middle of São Paulo Fridays No training sessions were held. Instead, two training sessions were held on Saturday. In the first session Power posted the fastest time in front of the Ganassi drivers Dario Franchitti and Dixon. Sébastien Bourdais had to be the best Lotus driver 1.6 seconds off the pace. In the second session Franchitti was fastest driver with power and Ryan Hunter -Reay. The training was interrupted three times. First Castroneves drove into turn 2 into the tire wall, then Takuma Satō put an oil gauge and three minutes before the end of Josef Newgarden had a gaffe that ended the training session.
Qualifying
The first part of the session was held in two groups. The six fastest drivers in each group came to the second segment. The remaining starting positions were determined from the result of the first Qualifyingabschnitts, where the drivers of the first group, the odd positions from 13, and the drivers of the second group were assigned to the even positions from 14. In the first group Power set the fastest lap in the second group Franchitti was the fastest pilot. All Lotus pilots dropped out in this segment. Satō not increased due to an engine failure on the part of qualifying.
In the second segment of qualifying, the six fastest riders qualified for the final section. Power posted the fastest lap. In the last section, the Firestone Fast Six so-called, power was again the fastest in front of Franchitti, Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay and Justin Wilson.
Because Lotus all drivers changed the engine, the Lotus drivers were added to the rear. Also convicted was Wilson, who drove in qualifying without the prescribed mechanism for the onboard camera.
Final training
In the final training session on Sunday morning, Hunter -Reay drove the fastest time before EJ Viso and Power. There were several turner and slip and the resulting yellow or red phases.
Race
At the start of the race power kept the lead. In the initial phase followed him Franchitti. The two of them drove a lead out to the rest of the field, which was led by Dixon, Graham Rahal, Newgarden, Mike Conway, Hunter -Reay and Hinchcliffe.
Many pilots in the rear part of the panel placed on a different strategy. Castroneves, who started from 20th place, first went in round 10 to the box. Satō, who started from 25th place, one lap later followed with his first stop. He was too fast in the pit lane road and immediately got a drive through penalty.
In lap 23 Ryan Briscoe triggered the first caution period. When he went to overtake at turn 6 in a stack of tires. At the next restart in lap 26 Conway turned the previously second-placed Franchitti. Conway, Newgarden and Rahal had to drive through the run-out zone and thus lost time. Franchitti put a stop control one to the box and fell from the top 20 to get out. This collision caused a further caution period. At the next restart in the 29th round by a yellow phase was necessary. Simona de Silvestro turned to Newgarden in the second corner. Thus, the line was partially blocked. Franchitti benefited from this caution period and came back into the top 10.
For racing halftime led power on the race ahead of Hunter -Reay. Behind drove Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Rubens Barrichello, Viso, Beatriz, Franchitti, Castroneves and Satō with a different strategy. Only Power and Hunter-Reay drove to a two -stop strategy. Meanwhile, Dixon took over the leadership of a short, called Splash -and- Dash - stop, scheduled just before the race. For the success of this strategy was allowed to come to a stop at no yellow phase. However solved a contact with the wall of Newgarden, in which this was eliminated, another yellow flag from. In this, the driver, who had not yet completed its last stop completed, this.
At the restart, there were some shifts. Satō attacked on the inside lane Castroneves and Franchitti. He walked past them and took over the third position. Also Castroneves succeeded about to overtake Franchitti. Franchitti called the maneuver Sato after the race as " Banzai Move". Behind Conway went into the first corner in the wall. Marco Andretti, Beatriz, Dixon, James Jakes, Canaan, Simon Pagenaud and Rahal did not manage to dodge, and blocked off the roads in this area. Therefore, another yellow flag was thrown. It only finally were only eleven cars on the lead lap. Five laps from the end, it came to the fifth and last restart. Hunter -Reay tried to drive past power with an attack on the winger. But failed.
Power eventually won the race ahead of Hunter -Reay and Satō, who scored his first IndyCar podium placement. It was Powers third win in a row. Power was 63 of 75 laps in the lead. The top 10 was completed by Castroneves, Franchitti, Hinchcliffe, JR Hildebrand, Charlie Kimball, Viso and Barrichello. Oriol Servia was in eleventh best Lotus driver.
Power to extend his lead in the drivers' standings on 45 points ahead of his teammate Castroneves from. Hinchcliffe took the third place. The Team Penske remained unbeaten at the fourth race of the season. It was the last race before this year's Indianapolis 500, the highlight of the season of the IndyCar Series.
Message list
All teams and drivers used the chassis Dallara DW12 with an aero kit from Dallara and a Firestone tire.
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Classifications
Qualifying
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Race
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Guide sections
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Yellow phases
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Points standings after the race
Drivers' championship
The scoring is explained here.