2016 Grand Prix of Indianapolis

2016 GP Indianapolis

Race details
5th round of the 2016 IndyCar Series season
Date	May 14, 2016
Official name	Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.439 mi / 3.925 km
Distance	82 laps 200 mi / 321.87 km
Pole position
Driver	Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske)
Time	1:08.6868
Fastest lap
Driver	Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport)
Time	1:09.5535 (on lap 67 of 82)
Podium
First	Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske)
Second	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske)
Third	James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports)

The 2016 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, officially known as the 2016 Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis for sponsorship reasons, was the fifth round of the 2016 IndyCar Series season. The race took place over 82 laps on the infield road corse at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race also served as part of the festivities surrounding the 2016 Indianapolis 500. The car count for the race slightly increased from other races during the season due to some entries participating in the Indianapolis 500 electing to also run in the Grand Prix.

For the second race in a row, Simon Pagenaud qualified in pole position, this time with a time of 1:08.6868. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Charlie Kimball surprised with a qualifying run good enough to place him second.^[1] Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden, who had qualified third and fifth respectively, had their times disallowed and were moved to the back of the starting grid for failing to meet minimum car weight regulations in post-qualifying inspection.^[2]

The race was run in cold temperatures and overcast skies. At the start, Simon Pagenaud held the lead, while James Hinchcliffe moved into second. As the field moved into the first turn, Tony Kanaan and Sébastien Bourdais made contact, bringing out a full course caution and bringing an end to Kanaan's day before he could complete a lap. The race restarted after four caution laps with much cleaner results. On lap six, Will Power lost control of his car entering turn seven while trying to defend from Alexander Rossi. No caution resulted from the spin and Power would finish a lowly 19th. The first round of pit stops came around lap 20. Graham Rahal would lead briefly due to extending fuel farther than anyone else, but would fall back following his own pit stop. The lead was briefly handed to Charlie Kimball, who had beat Pagenaud out of the pits. Pagenaud would not take long to find a way by, however, and was quickly back in the lead.

On lap 37, the second caution of the day came out when Sébastien Bourdais rolled to a halt on track. Most of the leaders pitted under the caution, but Hélio Castroneves and Conor Daly, who had made their first stops early and went off sequence from the leaders, stayed out, handing Castroneves the lead. On the restart, Daly was able to get by Castroneves and take the lead, which he held for 14 laps before coming in for his final pit stop. After Castroneves pitted two laps later, Simon Pagenaud resumed the lead and was able to gain enough of an advantage to not lose it again after his pit stop. Pagenaud took victory by roughly 4.5 seconds over his teammate Castroneves, giving Pagenaud his third consecutive victory and a comfortable lead in the point standings. James Hinchcliffe took the final step of the podium, coming across about half a second after Castroneves. Graham Rahal, despite starting at the back of the field, finished fourth. Despite fading in the last laps of the race, Conor Daly still placed a respectable sixth, making him the highest finishing rookie in the race.^[3]

Report

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Name	Grp.	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
1	22	Simon Pagenaud W	2	1:08.6748	1:08.7696	1:08.6868
2	83	Charlie Kimball	1	1:09.2451	1:09.0607	1:08.9816
3	5	James Hinchcliffe	2	1:09.0244	1:09.0086	1:09.2260
4	41	Jack Hawksworth	1	1:09.1601	1:09.0611	1:09.5141
5	10	Tony Kanaan	2	1:09.0845	1:09.2511
6	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	1	1:09.3260	1:09.2645
7	9	Scott Dixon	1	1:09.2004	1:09.4010
8	11	Sébastien Bourdais	1	1:09.2463	1:09.4436
9	7	Mikhail Aleshin	1	1:09.2537	1:09.6771
10	12	Will Power W	2	1:08.6746	1:09.9297
11	8	Max Chilton R	1	1:09.3289
12	98	Alexander Rossi R	2	1:09.1475
13	3	Hélio Castroneves	1	1:09.4947
14	61	Matthew Brabham R	2	1:09.2944
15	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1	1:09.5276
16	6	J. R. Hildebrand	2	1:09.4377
17	26	Carlos Muñoz	1	1:09.6457
18	16	Spencer Pigot R	2	1:09.4591
19	27	Marco Andretti	1	1:09.7478
20	14	Takuma Sato	2	1:09.4659
21	35	Alex Tagliani	1	1:10.4109
22	18	Conor Daly R	2	1:09.4795
23	19	Gabby Chaves	2	1:09.7720
24	15	Graham Rahal	2	Times Disallowed
25	21	Josef Newgarden	2	Times Disallowed
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Source for individual rounds:^[4]

Race Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Pit Stops	Grid	Laps Led	Pts.1
1	22	Simon Pagenaud W	Team Penske	Chevrolet	82	1:50:18.5823	3	1	57	54
2	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	82	+4.4748	3	13	7	41
3	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	82	+5.0807	3	3		35
4	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	82	+7.0715	4	24	2	33
5	83	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+7.4234	3	2	2	31
6	18	Conor Daly R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	82	+12.1838	3	22	14	29
7	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+12.9226	3	7		26
8	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Chevrolet	82	+13.6912	4	6		24
9	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	82	+15.1933	3	15		22
10	98	Alexander Rossi R	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	82	+16.3134	3	12		20
11	16	Spencer Pigot R	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	82	+20.5172	3	18		19
12	26	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport	Honda	82	+29.6369	3	17		18
13	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	82	+43.3093	3	9		17
14	8	Max Chilton R	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+43.3785	3	11		16
15	27	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	82	+44.6339	3	19		15
16	61	Matthew Brabham R	Pirtek Team Murray	Chevrolet	82	+45.5107	3	14		14
17	19	Gabby Chaves	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	82	+47.0326	4	23		13
18	14	Takuma Sato	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	82	+56.3389	5	20		12
19	12	Will Power W	Team Penske	Chevrolet	82	+57.4410	4	10		11
20	41	Jack Hawksworth	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	82	+1:03.7229	3	4		10
21	21	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	82	+1:08.6234	5	25		9
22	6	J. R. Hildebrand	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	81	+1 Lap	4	16		8
23	35	Alex Tagliani	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	81	+1 Lap	5	21		7
24	11	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Chevrolet	20	Mechanical	1	8		6
25	10	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	0	Contact	0	5		5
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Notes

¹ Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.

Source for time gaps:^[3]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Simon Pagenaud 242 2 Scott Dixon 166 3 Juan Pablo Montoya 160 4 Hélio Castroneves 159 1 5 Graham Rahal 133

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.

References

External links

• Official Pit Stop Data
• Official Race Broadcast