IndyCar Series reigning champion Dario Franchitti of Ganassi Racing dominated the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg that took place in the city's streets alongside Tampa Bay to record his 27th IndyCar Series victory. After overtaking pole sitter Will Power early in the race, Franchitti was never thretened again leading 94 out of 100 laps of the race and transformed the 14-turn, tightly-drawn race course into his personal waterfront playground when the half of the field kept parking, crashing and racing safely behind the leading lap.
However, for those who believe in bad omens, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was destined to start with a bang after a plane, attempting to land on the airway adjacent to Turn 14, crashed minutes before the start of the 100-lap race.
In fact by the first turn of the race, a spectacular multi-car accident took place that caused Marco Andretti on the sidelines before a single lap was turned. Approaching from the rear, Andretti flipped his No. 26 car over the top of Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon before landing inverted on the asphalt deep in Turn 1. The melee was triggered by Penske Racing's Helio Castroneves who appeared to bump Andretti going into a sharp right-hand turn at the end of the start/finish straightaway. Dixon continued around the course to the pits with heavy damage to the rear and right side of the No. 9 car and finished sixteenth.
Castroneves' teammate Ryan Briscoe finished eighteenth, shuffled to the rear in the accident. The crash pushed Castroneves severely to the back finishing twentieth amd Mike Conway, who qualified impressively on the outside of the second row in his Indycars return, retired with heavy damage as well.
Marco Andretti commented:
“I took the green and had a good run going on the inside of (Ryan) Briscoe and then Helio (Castroneves) misjudged his breaking point and ran up into the back of me. It was all a chain of events from there. I think having the cars start so close together is great for the fans but it was no good for me today.”
Castroneves added:
"As far as the incident, I'll have to look and see what happened, but it seems like I locked up the rear on the car. It's very disappointing, but we never gave up and we know we'll have better results next race."
Both front-starters, Dario Franchitti and pole sitter Will Power were among those who kept their cars' noses clean but when the race resumed on Lap 4, Power decided to defend the inside line of Turn 1, which normally assures the lead into Turn 2. However, Franchitti was intent on defying convention and decided to go around the outside on Turn 1 and run side-by-side with Power's car as they pinched down into Turn 2 before pulling ahead. Nevertheless, his move was one of the most daring, high-risk passes in recent seasons. If Power lifted and gave the corner to Franchitti, the pass would be made cleanly. If Power held his ground, both cars would have been destroyed against the 7000-pound concrete barriers that line the course.
Franchitti commented:
“I knew if I could get through the apex of [Turn] one, I would be on the inside for [Turn] two and it was up to Will to…he had the decision to make… Our tires were cold and stuff, and we were both going in there pretty hard. Neither of us wanted to give. But that was the thing to get alongside of him on the outside of turn one to get on the inside for two, and then I managed to make that pass stick...The Target car was pretty good all day, both on Reds and Blacks. Once I got a gap [over Power] I was able to kind of control it; not abuse the tires too badly. I wanted to save something for the end just in case there was a last, three laps-to-go restart or something. I was just trying to keep something in reserve.”
Power explained as well:
“Dario was just crazy fast. Shortly after he passed me, someone hit me from behind. That damage took a bit of downforce off the car and it took a while to work our way back up to second, with some great pit stops from the team. But Dario was untouchable, so we’ll take a solid second as a good start to our season.”
Tony Kanaan, just days after re-joined IZOD Indycars championship with the KV-Lotus team, capitalized on the Lap 1, Turn 1 crash that took out most of Rows 2, 3 and 4, and slotted in behind the front-runners.
“Not bad for an old guy. It's not even a first week [of racing together], because you know, we did have a shakedown on Tuesday but that team, the whole team, it was built the Monday before we went to the test, which it was the day before. All of the mechanics never had worked together. My mechanic and engineer walked into the shop straight from the track.
I still don't know all of the names of my crew but I'm just glad to be here. I think I have to thank the sponsors, obviously, that made that happen. It was a long, long road. It was probably the longest five months of my life. And you know, I had a job and lost a job twice without even driving a race car, so I guess [today’s result] was pretty interesting.”
Still, his podium finish was not easy task as he had to wage a duel with HVM Racing’s Simona De Silvestro which continued until the last lap of the race.
Simona De Silvestro’s magical run to fourth came on the heels of a major shakeup within her HVM Racing team as Michael Cannon, her engineer during the 2010 season, left the team to join KV-Lotus as Kanaan’s engineer.
“It's huge. You know, I never thought on Friday that we would be running so well during the race. You know, we are keeping up with the leaders, and you know, my new engineer, like communication in the beginning was pretty tough because I never worked with him. But you know, this morning it seems like it really clicked and [we] really tried to figure it out. Today is going to go right up there, too, because I think it was one of my best races I've done. I didn't really do many mistakes and I think I really liked that.”
Japanese Takuma Sato also recorded an IZOD IndyCar Series-best fifth-place finish in the No. 5 KV Racing Technology-Lotus car. Alex Tagliani, driving the No. 77 Bowers & Wilkins car for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, finished sixth. Raphael Matos, the '09 series Rookie of the Year, produced a seventh place for AFS Racing in its initial IZOD IndyCar Series start, advancing nine spots. Just like Kanaan, Matos who left the De Feran Dragon Team, re-joined the championship the team with which he won the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights Championship and his performance could mean that his apparent race-by-race co-operation with AFS will continue during the season.
“I have to thank (team owner) Gary Peterson and everyone that believed in me. It was a very difficult race, but I was able to keep my nose clean … sort of. I pushed very hard that last stint on the (Firestone Firehawk alternate) tires, trying to get that sixth position. We had a goal of finishing in the top 10, so I’m really happy for the whole team.”.
