2014 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

2014 St. Petersburg
Race details
	1st round of the 2014 IndyCar Series season
Date	March 30, 2014
Official name	Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Location	Streets of St. Petersburg
Course	Temporary street circuit; 1.800 mi / 2.897 km
Distance	110 laps; 198.000 mi / 318.670 km
Pole position
Driver	Takuma Sato (A. J. Foyt Enterprises)
Time	1:01.8686
Fastest lap
Driver	Will Power (Team Penske)
Time	1:02.3404 (on lap 95 of 110)
Podium
First	Will Power (Team Penske)
Second	Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport)
Third	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske)

The 2014 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the first race of the 2014 IndyCar Series season, the race took place on March 30 in St. Petersburg, Florida, on the city's temporary street course. The race was won by Will Power for Team Penske. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished second ahead of Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, and Simon Pagenaud. The top finishing rookie in the race was Mikhail Aleshin, in 12th position.

Report

Background

Scott Dixon entered this race as the defending series champion, having won his third Indycar title in the 2013 IndyCar Series season from Hélio Castroneves.

This was the first race for 3 Indycar rookies. Jack Hawksworth raced in the number 98 for Bryan Herta Autosport after moving up from the Indy Lights series. Mikhail Aleshin and Carlos Huertas, who both raced in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2013, made their debuts as well, with Aleshin racing for Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports and Huertas Dale Coyne Racing. Carlos Muñoz was the 4th rookie in the field with 3 Indycar races in the 2013 IndyCar Series season, most notably the 2013 Indianapolis 500.

Returning to American open wheel racing, since his last race in 2000, is Juan Pablo Montoya, the 1999 CART Champion and the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner. In 2014 he will drive for Team Penske in the number 2 car.

This was also the first race for Chip Ganassi Racing using Chevrolet engines after the switch from Honda, with Tony Kanaan replacing Dario Franchitti, after his career ending crash in the second Houston race last year. Other drivers racing for a new teams are; Ryan Briscoe with Chip Ganassi Racing, Mike Conway with Ed Carpenter Racing, Sébastien Bourdais and Sebastián Saavedra with KV Racing Technology.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	Name	Grp.	Round 1	Round 2	Firestone Fast 6
1	Takuma Sato	2	1:12.0073	1:03.0131	1:01.8686
2	Tony Kanaan	1	1:13.4961	1:03.2674	1:02.1637
3	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1	1:13.7241	1:03.1647	1:02.2167
4	Will Power	2	1:12.2248	1:03.2183	1:02.3955
5	Scott Dixon	2	1:12.0083	1:03.3753	1:02.3955
6	Marco Andretti	1	1:14.7209	1:03.2406	1:02.9595
7	Carlos Muñoz (R)	2	1:12.0603	1:03.3955
8	Jack Hawksworth (R)	2	1:12.1556	1:03.5738
9	Ryan Briscoe	1	1:15.6860	1:03.6206
10	Hélio Castroneves	1	1:14.8811	1:03.6635
11	Sebastián Saavedra	2	1:12.3060	1:03.8374
12	Mike Conway	1	1:13.9450	1:03.9618
13	Sébastien Bourdais	1	1:15.8337
14	Simon Pagenaud	2	1:12.3741
15	Mikhail Aleshin (R)	1	1:15.9111
16	Justin Wilson	2	1:12.5890
17	Carlos Huertas (R)	1	1:16.8105
18	Juan Pablo Montoya	2	1:12.6994
19	James Hinchcliffe	1	2:34.4862
20	Charlie Kimball	2	1:13.0048
21	Graham Rahal	1	no time
22	Josef Newgarden	2	1:13.1170

Race results

Pos	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Pit Stops	Grid	Laps Led	Points¹
1	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	110	2:06:57.6288	3	4	74	53
2	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	110	+ 1.9475	3	3		40
3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	110	+ 7.8716	3	10	2	36
4	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	110	+ 15.9685	3	5		32
5	Simon Pagenaud	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Honda	110	+ 17.3937	3	14		30
6	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	110	+ 20.3882	3	2		28
7	Takuma Sato	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	110	+ 20.8561	3	1	33	28
8	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	110	+ 21.0622	3	16		24
9	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda	110	+ 21.5544	3	22		22
10	Ryan Briscoe	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	110	+ 23.9897	3	9		20
11	Sebastián Saavedra	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	110	+ 34.4041	3	17		19
12	Mikhail Aleshin (R)	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Honda	110	+ 34.9969	5	15		18
13	Sébastien Bourdais	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	110	+ 35.3526	4	13		17
14	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	110	+ 38.9881	4	21		16
15	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Chevrolet	110	+ 40.3350	4	18		15
16	Mike Conway	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	110	+ 40.9140	4	12	1	15
17	Carlos Muñoz (R)	Andretti Autosport	Honda	110	+ 44.6244	4	7		13
18	Carlos Huertas (R)	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	110	+ 47.5637	4	17		12
19	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Honda	109	+ 1 Lap	3	19		11
20	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	108	+ 2 Laps	4	20		10
21	Jack Hawksworth (R)	Bryan Herta Autosport	Honda	83	Contact	3	8		9
22	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	82	Contact	3	6		8

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.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Will Power	53
2	Ryan Hunter-Reay	40
3	Hélio Castroneves	36
4	Scott Dixon	32
5	Simon Pagenaud	30

Manufacturer standings

Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	Chevrolet	122
2	Honda	72

Note: Only the top five positions are included.

References

Previous race: None	IndyCar Series 2014 season	Next race: 2014 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Previous race: 2013 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg	Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg	Next race: 2015 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

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