Will Power Wins Incident Filled Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power has won a highly eventful and incident filled Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the 38th running of the event, even though Power suffered a grid penalty for an engine change after qualifying and started 12th. 

With the Target Chip Ganassi of Dario Franchitti starting from pole alongside rookie Josef Newgarden, the start was an eventful one as the rookie tried to go around the outside of the reigning Champion. This unfortunately ended in tears as Newgarden got tagged by Franchitti and found himself embedded in the tyre barriers after only the first turn. This subsequently brought out a full course caution, with the cars barely getting up to racing speeds.

As the race returned to green flag conditions, Franchitti once again found himself under pressure as former F1 driver Justin Wilson overtook him heading into turn 1. Unlike Newgarden, Wilson was able to make the pass stick and streaked off into the distance opening up a considerable lead. As if Franchitti’s race hadn’t already got off to a miserable start, the Scot was then passed by the rookie of Simon Pagenaud, before both Takuma Sato and team-mate Scott Dixon got around the 4-time IndyCar Champion.

On lap 20 the second full course caution was caused as former ChampCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais lost control of his Lotus powered IndyCar and ended up in the wall. As soon as the caution came out, the majority of the field dived into the pits almost immediately. 

On the restart, Dario Franchitti suffered a torrid getaway and lost several places heading into turn 1. Before any of the drivers’ could return to full racing speeds, Alex Tagliani was seen limping down an escape road with right rear tyre damage after a collision with E.J. Viso. All attention was then diverted elsewhere as Marco Andretti suffered a violent incident flying into the tyre barriers at high speeds. As Andretti’s crash was shown again, it became apparent the American driver was very lucky to come out of the incident unscathed after making contact with Graham Rahal and getting launched into the air, narrowly missing collecting Scott Dixon in mid air. Graham Rahal was also forced to retire, after loosing the majority of his rear-wing during the collision with Andretti.

With the Safety Car out on track for the third time in 24 laps, Katherine Legge was also seen in the wall, whereas Mike Conway was seen slowing down on track after getting a tap from behind from Rubens Barrichello. Upon making it back to the pits, Conway had the rear of his car dismantled as his mechanics set to fixing the issue.

As the field prepared to go racing once again, they were forced to wait an extra couple of laps after Scott Dixon came to a sudden halt in the middle of the track, and subsequently retired from the race. This added delay forced Sato to pit from the lead, and therefore handed the lead to Ryan Hunter-Reay. However, before green flag racing was resumed, both Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe also decided to pit, with Ryan Briscoe assuming the lead with Franchitti 2nd.

On the restart, Franchitti suffered yet another blow as he made contact with Briscoe, slightly damaging his nose. Four laps later, Dario finally pitted for a new nose, as both Castroneves and Briscoe pitted as well. After rejoining the race, Mike Conway’s Honda powered car finally gave up on lap 48, with a mechanical issue prematurely ending the Brits race.

With rookie Simon Pagenaud leading the race, the Frenchman was forced to pit on lap 48, thus handing the lead to Takuma Sato as Will Power began a charge as he passed Justin Wilson for 2nd. On lap 55, Power pitted for the alternate red sticker tyres, and a lap later Takuma Sato pitted. With the majority of the front running drivers’ all pitting within close proximity of each other, Ryan Hunter-Reay returned to the lead. However his lead was short lived as on lap 59 both he and Hinchcliffe pitted, therefore returning rookie Pagenaud to the lead.

Will Power continued his surge to the top as he scythed passed Takuma Sato for 2nd and turned his attention to catching Simon Pagenaud for the lead. With Rubens Barrichello making up ground going from 6th to 4th, Simon Pagenaud eventually pitted once again. This handed Will Power the lead and left Pagenaud in 4th behind Barrichello. The Frenchman made light work of Rubens, and eventually caught and passed Sato for 2nd much to the adoration of the crowd.

As the 38th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach came to a close, Simon Pagenaud closed the gap to Power from nearly six seconds to just under a second but to no avail, as the Australian took his second consecutive win of the season.

Further behind there was carnage on the final lap as Hunter-Reay and Sato came together and Castroneves and Barrichello also came together at the final corner, blocking the entire track! With Hunter-Reay being issued a time penalty for the collision with Sato, James Hinchcliffe came home 3rd in an unbelievably hectic final lap.

Results - 85 laps:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy
 2.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda            + 0.8675s
 3.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy           + 13.2719s
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy                 + 18.1951s
 5.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy            + 22.9947s
 6.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy           + 42.5631
 7.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy             + 1m40.1271s
 8.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda              + 1 lap
 9.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy                 + 1 lap
10.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda              + 1 lap
11.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda              + 1 lap
12.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy                 + 1 lap
13.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy             + 1 lap
14.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy          + 2 laps
15.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            + 3 laps
16.  Oriol Servia         Dreyer & Reinbold DW12-Lotus  + 3 laps
17.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Lotus             + 3 laps
18.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda            + 5 laps
19.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Lotus             + 5 laps

Retirements:

     Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                74 laps
     Alex Tagliani        BHA DW12-Lotus                46 laps
     Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda               41 laps
     Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda            27 laps
     Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            23 laps
     Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy           22 laps
     Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             0 laps

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