2012 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach 2012 took place on 15 April at the Long Beach Grand Prix Circuit in Long Beach, California, United States place and was the third race of the IndyCar Series season of 2012. It was the 38th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
- 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 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Hélio Castroneves led in the drivers' standings, two points ahead of Scott Dixon and nine points on Willpower. At the engine manufacturers Chevrolet led with 6 points ahead of Honda and with 10 points, ahead of Lotus.
For Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach a new scheme for the entire course was full of yellow flags, called Full -Course Caution introduced. So far, the pit lane was blocked at every Full -Course Caution and released only after all the pilots were lined up behind the safety car. From this Grand Prix the pits remained in the future at all the races on non- ovals on Full -Course Cautions without emergency open. For emergency situations, the previous regulation was continued.
In advance of the race Chevrolet announced that all eleven Chevrolet drivers had to change their engine prematurely. During test drives a defect in the engine by James Hinchcliffe was found, after a closer examination revealed that in all engines, a problem could not be excluded on the motor control. Since the engines had not yet reached a maturity of 1850 miles, all Chevrolet drivers were treated on the grid by 10 positions to the rear. In addition, before the race, the Lotus engines in Sébastien Bourdais, Katherine Legge and Oriol Servia were replaced prematurely.
With Bourdais (three times), Castroneves, Power, Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter -Reay and Mike Conway (once each ) were six former winners of this Grand Prix.
Training
The first training day was marked by rainy conditions. On the first training attended 19 of 26 drivers. During the first session the track dried, so that some pilots switched to slicks. Marco Andretti scored the fastest lap before Takuma Satō and Conway. Shortly before the end of the training, there was a break, after parallel of accidents and Simona de Silvestro Satō. In the second session, it rained so hard that only two pilots took to the track. Franchitti finished an installation lap, his teammate Dixon stepped down during this. Then there was a red flag for the recovery of the vehicle. Then no other driver went to the track.
On the third practice session on Saturday it was dry. The training was interrupted after six incidents. Power was the fastest rider in front of Hunter-Reay and Castroneves.
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 Ryan Briscoe recorded the fastest lap in the second group Josef Newgarden was the fastest pilot. All Lotus pilots dropped out in this segment.
In the second segment of qualifying, the six fastest riders qualified for the final section. Power posted the fastest lap. In the last section, called the Firestone Fast Six, Briscoe scored the fastest time before power, Hunter -Reay, Franchitti, EJ Viso and Hinchcliffe. Briscoe was awarded the bonus point and the prize money for the pole position, because of the premature engine change all Chevrolet drivers but he went from eleventh on the grid.
The first starting position was Franchitti, who drove the only pilot in the Firestone Fast Six with a Honda engine. From the second and third started Newgarden and Justin Wilson.
Final training
In the final training session on Sunday morning it was within the 30 -minute training session to four interruptions. Fastest pilot was Hunter -Reay before Dixon and Rubens Barrichello.
Race
At the start of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, there was a touch of the first two pilots. While Franchitti drove on, dropped out Newgarden. For the recovery of the vehicle, there was a yellow phase. Following the yellow phase Franchitti lost after four laps the lead to Wilson and fell during the race further back. In a collision with Briscoe he damaged his front wing itself and had to make a repair stop. Franchitti was overtaken and put the vehicle in 82 of 85 laps with mechanical problems from.
In the 20th round Satō took the lead and there was a yellow flag because Bourdais was in Turn 9. The car rejoined the race quickly back on and it came in the 22nd round to restart. One lap later, there was a yellow phase, since it came at three points independently to accidents. Among other things, Andretti and Graham Rahal collided, causing the race was over for both. Andretti tried to drive past his opponent, but Rahal joined the line, so that the vehicles collided. Andretti was thereby conveyed into the tire wall. He was lucky that he did not overturn. The race organizers recognized the action of Rahal a violation of the rules 9.3.2 (Block) and 9.3.3 ( avoidable contact), which is why Rahal received a suspended sentence up to and including 23 June 2012.
Before the race was released again in the 30th round, Dixon retired with technical problems. There were no further caution periods and has evolved into a duel for victory between Power and Simon Pagenaud. Power sat down on a two-stop strategy and had thus the end of the race, save fuel, while Pagenaud finished apply a three-stop strategy, and thus had to save any fuel. Pagenaud took the end of the race back on power.
Power maintained a narrow lead until the finish line and won the race ahead of Pagenaud. Until the last round Satō was in third place. However, he collided on the last lap with Hunter -Reay and remained on the track stand. Both pilots gave each other the blame for the collision. Satō was rated eighth. Hunter -Reay finished third across the finish line. However, since it was the race director to blame for the collision, he was occupied with 30 penalty seconds and counted as sixth. Was thus Hinchcliffe In third place. It was the first podium placings for Pagenaud and Hinchcliffe. Fourth place went to Tony Kanaan, who improved during the race from 19th place on the grid to this position. Canaan also achieved the fastest lap. In addition, Hildebrand and Briscoe crossed the finish line in fifth and seventh on the lead lap.
While the first pilots were already in the target, it came in the last corner to a collision between Barrichello, Castroneves and Jakes, when the track has been blocked and in addition to these three pilots all those who drove behind them, no longer able to drive to the finish. Barrichello and Wilson counted on the ninth and tenth places, and thus completed the top 10
Although all Chevrolet drivers had been displaced due to a premature engine change on the grid by 10 positions to the rear and Briscoe was in eleventh the foremost Chevrolet driver on the grid, seven Chevrolet and three Honda riders were at the end of the race in the top 10
With the victory, Power took the lead in the drivers' championship by his teammate Castroneves, who dropped to second place. Pagenaud improved to third place. At the engine manufacturers the rankings 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.