Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy Wins the Rain-soaked, Re-scheduled Verizon IndyCar 2-in-TO Honda Indy Toronto Race 1

Car 11 Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy got his first Verizon IndyCar win since his return to Indycar in 2011. He earned the Verizon P1 Award for Race 1 the day before, but the race was postponed to July 20 due to a rain-slicked 1.755-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit. that turned the event into a same-day doubleheader.

With this win he broke a tie with Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy for 8th all-time win list with 32 career wins. He won the race by 3.3408 seconds over 2nd place Car 3 Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy who started in 2nd place.

3rd place winner was Car 10 Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, who started in 5th place followed by 4th place Car 77 Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, coming out of a 4th place start.

5th place went to Car 9 Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, who started in 9th place, followed by 6th place Car 15 Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, who started in 11th place.

7th place winner, Car 83 Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, started in 18th place, and was followed  by home town favorite 8th Place winner, Car 27 James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, who started in 8th place.

9th Place Car 12 Will Power, Dallara-Chevy started in 23rd place. And finishing last in the Top 10 came Car 19 Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, who started in 7th place.

The race had 2 Cautions for 5 laps and 3 Lead changes among 3 drivers.

1st Caution on lap 1 for Car 14 Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, Car 16 Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, Car 20 Mike Conway, Dallara-Chevy, Car 34 Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda and Car 77 Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda Contact 77 in Turn 4 / Red Flag. 2nd Caution on lap 17 for Car 18 Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda for Contact in Turn 3. Lap Leaders: Bourdais 1 – 33,
Castroneves 34, Pagenaud 35 – 40, Bourdais 41 – 65.

This was the first race postponement to create a same-day doubleheader since June 28, 1981, at the 1.522-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway, when Rick Mears swept the Kraco Twin 125s.

A Verizon IndyCar Series twin-bill of shortened race distances was contested at Texas Motor Speedway on June 11, 2011. Dario Franchitti and Power were the winners of the 114-lap Firestone Twin 275.

After a 2-hour, 30-minute delay from the scheduled start, IndyCar officials and the promoter group made the decision to wait for a more favorable weather forecast July 20.

Verizon IndyCar 2inTO Honda Indy Toronto Race 1 Quotes:

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVSH Racing Chevrolet): “It’s really sweet, man. That one didn’t come easy. We had to fight and wait for it for a long time, but today was just kind of one of these days when the stars align. I guess I was not expecting it because here I know how things can go. I was very relaxed before the race, just did the job and was hoping that things were going to pan out in our favor and they did and, couldn’t be any happier with this one.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet): “It was a hard weekend, but we’re going to make the best out of it. Right now, second place isn’t too bad. Certainly we had a good battle in the beginning. Had to work a little bit for it. Had to save energy because I knew there is another race but the car was working really well and towards the end it was a little bit closer out there with two slow cars and I didn’t know where to go. But, in the end of the day, the PPG car did a great job. Now let’s see for the second one.”

MIKE CONWAY (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): “We were just saving a lot of fuel from the midway of the race to the end. And you are looking in your mirrors a lot, making sure you don’t get overtaken. I did make it to the end and did overtake some people. Then on my last move on the last lap, I tried to get by (Jack) Hawksworth (for 13th) into Turn 3 and I got hung out to dry. Then (Carlos) Huertas stuck his nose inside at Turn 5 and I couldn’t hold him off. I think our pace is a little better in the race and especially with reds (Firestone tires). Rubber is going down now on the surface for the second race so maybe the car will come to us better. At the start, I meant to stop and not hit Simon (Pagenaud) but the car spun around. I didn’t hit anything. But I stalled the engine and I had to wait to have the safety team to restart me. That put us towards the back then.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 National Guard Honda): “A top six feels good. We had a very solid race. I got a couple of guys on the start and then thankfully avoided the crash and really just stayed out of trouble. I made a few passes throughout the race but I think the key was to stay out of trouble and we did and got a top six. Obviously we would have liked to continue to push the National Guard car forward, but we’ll take it. We were able to learn what the car would do over the entire race and that’s a big perk for us. We’ve got to keep working. We’ve got a long one ahead of us and a lot of laps. I think there is a great opportunity for us to continue to gain some points on guys that we’re around (in the standings) and we’ll go from there.”

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Honda): “We had a safe strategy in Race 1, and I think collecting the points we did is important. We didn’t want to risk too much. I definitely wouldn’t say that I was the fastest driver on the track, but at the end of the race I had some nice overtakes on other drivers. It was a fun race, and it’s great that the car is in one piece. We’ve only got four hours to get ready for the next race, and our team is happy and ready to go do this again.”

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda): “Thanks to Toronto for being such a great city, such a great supporter of IndyCar. Today was a good show. It was an interesting race. Obviously we made sure the start was with Filippi turning me around but then we recovered. We were last and we recovered to fourth. I’m really happy with the result. Now it’s the best time to recover because those cars are really physical and there’s another race coming in a few hours.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “It wasn’t too bad of a race for the Target team. We gained a few spots there at the beginning but the car was very loose and we tried to make a change to help it in the one stop that we had. I don’t think we were aggressive enough on the change but it was OK for the first five or 10 laps and then we struggled with the rear tires. Overall third and fifth isn’t bad for Team Target.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “It was an OK race. I think (Sebastien) Bourdais was in a class of his own, so it was pretty hard to fight for the win but I tried to keep up with Helio (Castroneves) and (Ryan) Hunter-Reay at the time and I knew my car, towards the end of the stint, it wasn’t as good as theirs so I was just trying to hang in there. We had a pretty good stop, pretty good start. So, it’s an OK day. We still have a little bit to improve if we want to win races, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

LUCA FILIPPI (No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda): “My front wing was damaged on the right side from the opening lap so I was struggling with so much understeer because of the downforce we were losing and I had also worn the front right (tire). On that lap I just went a little off the racing line because of the extra understeer and went on the marbles and hit the wall and that was it. It’s such a shame because I was keeping the pace with the guys up front and everything was going well. I think we have a good pace for the second race. We just need to try to overtake people because we are starting from entrant points so we’re starting dead last. I will do my best.”

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “The Verizon Chevy car was good today and it was a good finish for Race 1. There was a lot of good racing going on everywhere. It’ll be exciting to see what happens in Race 2. We just want to finish closer to the front.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Hartman Oil/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): “Sunday started off a bit rough for us. Right at the start we got ourselves into a bit of a mess with the stack up in front of us and then getting hit from behind. The crew did a great job and we got the car fixed. We didn’t lose a lap which was stellar. We had to serve a penalty for it, but not losing a lap was a big deal. We tried to do what we could to claw our way back up and kept finding ourselves in rotation with other cars, and at the end there I pushed too hard and tried to make too much happen. What are you going to do when you’re fighting for 10th? I gave it a shot but I pushed too far”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Hawk Team Penske Chevrolet): “I made a mistake staying on red tires and the tires just went away. When you’re competing there’s nothing you can do but just get out of the way. But we will just look forward to Race 2 and go for it again with hopes for a better finish for the Hawk Chevrolet.”

JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 98 Castrol Edge Honda): “A bit of an interesting race, we started quite strong in the beginning and were able to beat a few people in different instances and gain a few positions. We were in P8 for a lot of it, but it didn’t quite work out the way we wanted in the end. We’ll try and get better in the second race.”

Verizon IndyCar Series Honda Indy Toronto Race 1

TORONTO – Results Sunday of the Honda Indy Toronto Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 1.755-mile Exhibition Place street.

Finish Position, Satrting Position in parentheses, Car #, Driver, Chassis-engine, Laps, Status

1. (1) Car 11 Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

2. (2) Car 3 Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

3. (5) Car 10 Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

4. (4) Car 77 Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

5. (9) Car 9 Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

6. (11) Car 15 Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

7. (18) Car 83 Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

8. (8) Car 27 James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

9. (23) Car 12 Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

10. (7) Car 19 Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

11. (19) Car 7 Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

12. (21) Car 8 Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

13. (15) Car 98 Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

14. (17) Car 18 Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

15. (13) Car 20 Mike Conway, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running

16. (20) Car 25 Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

17. (14) Car 34 Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running

18. (22) Car 2 Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 64, Running

19. (16) Car 17 Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 64, Running

20. (10) Car 67 Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 63, Contact

21. (3) Car 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 39, Contact

22. (6) Car 16 Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 17, Contact

23. (12) Car 14 Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 10, Contact

 Race Statistics

Winner’s average speed: 90.370

Time of Race: 01:15:44.3232

Margin of victory: 3.3408

Cautions: 2 for 5 laps
No Duration Total Reason for Caution
1st 1 to 2 for 2 laps Contact: Cars 14, 16, 20, 34, & 77 in Turn 4 / Red Flag
2nd 17 to 19 for 3 laps Contact: Car 18 in Turn 3

Lead changes: 3 among 3 drivers

Lap Leaders: Bourdais 1 – 33, Castroneves 34, Pagenaud 35 – 40, Bourdais 41 – 65

Point Standings: Castroneves 512, Power 484, Pagenaud 454, Hunter-Reay 448, Montoya 417, Munoz 371, Dixon 361, Andretti 351, Kanaan 340, Bourdais 336.

Next Race: Sunday 20 2inTO Honda Indy Toronto Race 2

http://www.indycar.com/

 

 

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