2012 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 2012 took place on April 1 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, United States place and was the second 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 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Hélio Castroneves led in the drivers' standings with 8 points ahead of Scott Dixon and 15 points on Ryan Hunter -Reay. At the engine manufacturers Chevrolet led with 3 points ahead of Honda and with 5 points ahead of Lotus.
With Castroneves and Will Power (once each ) were all previous winners of this Grand Prix.
Training
In the first Training Power set the fastest time ahead of his teammate Castroneves and Takuma Satō. The second training took place under rainy conditions. Satō posted the fastest time at the beginning of the training. Second was Sebastien Bourdais before Dixon. On the first day of practice engine at Oriol Servia was changed due to damage. In the grid, he has been thus set at ten positions to the rear.
In the third exercise, which took place on Saturday morning, was overshadowed by fog, so the driver drove only one installation lap.
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 Mike Conway drove the fastest lap in the second group was the fastest pilot power. All Lotus pilots dropped out in this segment. Power and Dixon were the few pilots who drove a time under 1:10 minutes.
In the second segment of qualifying, the six fastest riders qualified for the final section. The section has been canceled with the red flag after Hunter -Reay had an accident. At this time, all the pilots had not yet completed their fastest lap. Power and Dixon drove at this moment their fastest time. This was canceled by the race management. Power was thus out of the top -6 addition. The section was not restarted. Castroneves was the fastest pilot. In addition it managed James Hinchcliffe, JR Hildebrand, Conway, Tony Kanaan and Dixon in the last section. In the so-called Firestone Fast Six were thus two Honda, Chevrolet and four pilots.
Castroneves finally achieved the pole position ahead of Hinchcliffe and Dixon.
Following the qualifying engine damage was found in Alex Tagliani, which is why the engine was changed. Tagliani was transferred to them in the starting line-up at ten positions to the rear.
Final training
In the final training Simon Pagenaud drove the fastest lap with power and Satō. The Warm Up was after rides of Hunter- Reay and Bourdais interrupted with the red flag.
Race
When starting Castroneves maintained the lead. For Tagliani, the race was already finished in the first round after he was rolled out on the track. For the recovery of the vehicle, it immediately came to a yellow phase.
Power, who had gone from ninth on the grid, started on the harder tire compound, the " Blacks ". All other pilots in the front of the field started on the softer compound, the " Reds ". In the first pit stop phase, which took place under race pace, he moved to Reds. It was a quick stop, and he improved to sixth place. A little later he overtook Canaan on the track in the fifth curve, which is considered as classic overtaking Elle the racetrack. Castroneves, who started the race on the Reds, lost at the first stop, the guide at Dixon. Powers second stop at race pace, which took place before the race half- time, took him after his opponent in the pits were in second place. In the 53th round Satō failed. He put his vehicle on the side of the track. Since there is no danger to the other pilots was, no yellow phase was triggered.
His third pit stop took power in leadership. He benefited from a troubled pit stop of Dixon, who lost several seconds because the right rear wheel nut had fallen to the mechanic from the impact wrench. Hinchcliffe finished in third place in the meantime. In the 67th round, it came to the second caution period after Katherine Legge had turned on the track. Thus, the field moved closer together.
At the restart, Dixon tried to walk past power, but he claimed the inside for themselves, Dixon urged from light and kept the lead. Among other Hinchcliffe lost some positions and fell back to sixth place. Rubens Barrichello made the restart three positions well and drove in the final phase of good lap times and still came past some opponents. Also good performance in the final phase showed Bourdais, who drove the only Lotus driver in the top 10.
Power eventually won the race after a strong drive with the appropriate strategy. Dixon was second ahead of Castroneves with the most laps led. Graham Rahal and Pagenaud completed the top 5 It was the first top 5 result for Pagenaud. The top 10 completed Hinchcliffe, Conway, Barrichello, Bourdais and Dario Franchitti, who was driven past Marco Andretti shortly before race end. It was the first top- 10 ranking of Barrichello. With Bourdais first came a Lotus driver within the first ten to the finish.
Castroneves maintained the lead in the drivers' standings ahead of Dixon. Power moved up to third place. In the Manufacturers' Championship, the positions remained unchanged.
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.