2012 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix
The 2012 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix presented by ShopAutoWeek.com was an
Preparations for the race were overshadowed by speculation over IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard's job, after he tweeted that some team owners were trying to get him fired. Dixon claimed pole position for the race, the first IndyCar event in Detroit since 2008, and maintained his lead throughout the race. After 38 laps, James Hinchcliffe hit a dislodged piece of the track and continued straight into the tire wall. Further investigation discovered that the track was disintegrating in various places, and the event was red flagged. After a two-hour break, in which track officials ripped out the damaged sections of track and filled the holes with concrete, the race was restarted, shortened to 60 laps. Rain also started to fall lightly, and shortly after the restart a caution was issued when Hélio Castroneves spun. Dario Franchitti gained four places after the red flag, benefiting from his softer red tires, to finish second behind his teammate.
There were four cautions, totalling 12 laps during the race. It was Dixon's first win of the season and the 28th of his career, which moved him up to second in the drivers' standings. Of the 25 drivers that started, 19 completed the race, two retired after contact and four retired due to mechanical issues. Justin Wilson recorded the fastest lap of the race, completing a circuit in 1:12.0651.
Background
The IndyCar series had not visited Detroit since 2008,[2] when Justin Wilson won the race after taking the lead in the last 20 laps when Hélio Castroneves was penalized for blocking him.[3] The following year's scheduled race was cancelled due to lack of funding, and the failure to secure sponsorship for the event.[4] In September 2011, the Detroit City Council approved plans for the race to be held on the weekend of June 1–3, 2012.[5] A month later, it was confirmed that the race would be run in 2012, sponsored by the Chevrolet arm of Detroit-based manufacturer General Motors.[6]
Prior to the race, Will Power was the points leader, with 200 points, while Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe each had 164 points to place second and third respectively.[10] The configuration was the 2.07 miles (3.33 km) long track used in 2007 and 2008. It is a tight street course on which overtaking is difficult, and previewing the race, Tony DiZinno claimed it had "often been a mundane race."[11] Four racers participating in the 2012 event were previous winners on the course: Castroneves, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Wilson. In contrast, 11 of the 25 drivers had not previously participated in an IndyCar race at Belle Isle, and four of the drivers had only competed once: in the 2008 race.[11]
The previous weekend's Indianapolis 500 had, according to an agency report, been "a breathtaking event, the kind that’s certain to be talked about through the years",
Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions were held on the Friday before the race: each lasted for an hour. A third session, also an hour long, took place on the Saturday morning prior to qualifying.[18] The first session provided limited opportunities to the drivers due to heavy rain and standing water on the course.[19] As a result, only 11 of the 25 entrants participated in the session, of which Takuma Sato set the fastest time.[20] Conditions improved during the second practice, and all 25 drivers set times. Will Power was quickest; marginally over a tenth of a second faster than Wilson. Ryan Briscoe, Simon Pagenaud and Tony Kanaan completed the top five, all recording times within half a second of Power.[21] In the third practice, Scott Dixon recorded the fastest time, trailed by Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Briscoe and Wilson also lapped the track in under 72 seconds to finish among the five quickest drivers.[22]
Qualifying took place over three rounds: the drivers were split into two groups for the first round, in which the top six from each group progressed to the next round. Dixon was the fastest from the first group, followed by Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay within half a second of his time. Wilson, Sébastien Bourdais and Sato were the other drivers to advance to the second round.[23] In the second group, Power set the fastest overall time in the first round, and Alex Tagliani was close behind him, also setting a faster time than Dixon. Graham Rahal, E. J. Viso, Hélio Castroneves and Briscoe also qualified for the next stage.[24] Power was once again the fastest driver in the second round, leading Dixon and Tagliani. The top-three drivers were separated by less than a tenth of a second. The other three drivers to continue to the third round, the "Firestone Fast Six", were Pagenaud, Viso and Hunter-Reay. Rahal, who finished in seventh was just four thousandths of a second behind Hunter-Reay.[25]
The top six drivers were split evenly by engine; half running Honda engines, and the other half Chevrolet. It was also the first time in the 2012 season that six different teams were represented in the third qualifying round. Hunter-Reay and Power traded fastest times early in the session before Pagenaud and Viso went quicker. Power and Dixon then set times under 71 seconds, and then improved upon their own laps to finish as the top-two. Dixon set the fastest time; 1:10.3162: just four thousandths of a second quicker than Power. Tagliani was third, joined on the second row by Pagenaud, while Viso and Hunter-Reay qualified on the third row of the grid.[25] Rahal and Simona de Silvestro were both subject to ten-place grid penalties for engine changes made in mid-May, dropping them to 17th and 25th on the grid respectively.[26] Rubens Barrichello was also given a ten-place penalty for changing his chassis between qualifying and the race, placing him 24th.[27]
Qualifying classification
Grid | No. | Name | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Pos[28] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:11.0332 | 1:10.5117 | 1:10.3162 | 1 |
2 | 12 | Will Power | 1:10.7900 | 1:10.4977 | 1:10.3206 | 2 |
3 | 98 | Alex Tagliani | 1:10.8193 | 1:10.5765 | 1:10.6684 | 3 |
4 | 77 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:11.4451 | 1:10.7050 | 1:10.8426 | 4 |
5 | 5 | E. J. Viso | 1:11.2637 | 1:10.9312 | 1:11.0852 | 5 |
6 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1:11.4888 | 1:10.9398 | 1:11.4557 | 6 |
7 | 2 | Ryan Briscoe | 1:11.5877 | 1:10.9964 | – | 8 |
8 | 3 | Hélio Castroneves | 1:11.3477 | 1:11.0076 | – | 9 |
9 | 7 | Sébastien Bourdais | 1:11.8125 | 1:11.1624 | – | 10 |
10 | 18 | Justin Wilson | 1:11.5936 | 1:11.3376 | – | 11 |
11 | 15 | Takuma Sato | 1:12.0913 | 1:11.8122 | – | 12 |
12 | 67 | Josef Newgarden | 1:12.1068 | – | – | 13 |
13 | 27 | James Hinchcliffe | 1:11.6519 | – | – | 14 |
14 | 10 | Dario Franchitti | 1:12.3276 | – | – | 15 |
15 | 14 | Mike Conway | 1:11.6521 | – | – | 16 |
16 | 22 | Oriol Servià | 1:12.5754 | – | – | 17 |
17 | 38 | Graham Rahal | 1:11.0627 | 1:10.9434 | – | 7 † |
18 | 11 | Tony Kanaan | 1:11.8080 | – | – | 18 |
19 | 4 | J. R. Hildebrand | 1:12.5835 | – | – | 19 |
20 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 1:12.5844 | – | – | 21 |
21 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 1:14.8816 | – | – | 23 |
22 | 26 | Marco Andretti | 1:12.6531 | – | – | 24 |
23 | 19 | James Jakes | 1:12.8469 | – | – | 25 |
24 | 8 | Rubens Barrichello | 1:12.4052 | – | – | 20 ‡ |
25 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | 1:12.6014 | – | – | 22 † |
† Rahal and de Silvestro penalised 10 places for changing engine. ‡ Barrichello penalised 10 places for changing chassis. |
Race
The race, the sixth of the season, began at 3:30 p.m.
On lap 39, James Hinchcliffe fell victim to the deteriorating track. Going through turn six, he struck a large piece of asphalt that had lifted from the track. After hitting his front wing, it then went under the car and propelled it into the air. With no traction, Hinchcliffe was unable to control his car and was sent into the tire wall.[36] Hinchcliffe was angry after the race, and claimed that the track should have been fixed earlier: "The fact that (race control) let it go as far as they did, essentially waiting for someone to crash as a result of it before they did something, is very unsafe."[37] He said that the track had lifted much earlier in the race, but that the drivers had been forced to keep avoiding the debris, which was on the racing line.[37] On the same lap, Takuma Sato clipped the curb going into turn 12 and lost control of his car before hitting the wall, forcing his retirement.[38] The two crashes drew a full track caution, and the cars drove behind the safety car for six laps before a red flag was given on lap 45.[39]
The track had been patched up prior to the weekend's racing using a synthetic rubber compound, and it had remained secure throughout the practice and qualifying sessions, as well as the
After a two-hour delay, the race was restarted.[41] Rahal suffered clutch problems on the restart, which placed him two laps down, while the other drivers ran behind the safety car, during which the marshalls showed the areas in which repair work had been conducted. Just prior to the restart, there was a short rain shower which made the track slightly slippy. Power lost one position on the restart, dropping to third. Franchitti, who was the closest driver to the front to have the softer compound red tires fitted gained two positions on the restart, moving up to fourth. The restart only lasted for six corners, before Castroneves spun in the wet conditions, and was then struck by Ed Carpenter. On the next corner, Josef Newgarden had slid into the wall and stalled, and a full-track caution was again called.[40] The race was restarted with nine laps remaining, and Franchitti once more gained a position, passing Pagenaud to gain second. However, the race was almost immediately under a yellow flag again as E. J. Viso was spun by Marco Andretti, and stalled in the middle of turn four. From the ensuing restart, Dixon managed to maintain the lead from Franchitti, and the two Chip Ganassi Racing drivers completed a second successive one-two finish.[42]
Race results
Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Engine | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Laps Led | Points1 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 60 | 1:27:39.5053 | 1 | 60 | 53 |
2 | 10 | Dario Franchitti | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 60 | + 1.9628 | 14 | 0 | 40 |
3 | 77 | Simon Pagenaud (R) | Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports
|
Honda | 60 | + 2.4773 | 4 | 0 | 35 |
4 | 12 | Will Power | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 60 | + 3.5435 | 2 | 0 | 32 |
5 | 22 | Oriol Servià | Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | Chevrolet | 60 | + 9.6619 | 16 | 0 | 30 |
6 | 11 | Tony Kanaan | KV Racing Technology | Chevrolet | 60 | + 10.1676 | 18 | 0 | 28 |
7 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport
|
Chevrolet | 60 | + 10.6455 | 6 | 0 | 26 |
8 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 60 | + 11.1048 | 20 | 0 | 24 |
9 | 14 | Mike Conway | A. J. Foyt Enterprises
|
Honda | 60 | + 11.5315 | 15 | 0 | 22 |
10 | 98 | Alex Tagliani | Team Barracuda – BHA | Honda | 60 | + 12.5688 | 3 | 0 | 20 |
11 | 26 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport
|
Chevrolet | 60 | + 24.5855 | 22 | 0 | 19 |
12 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevrolet | 60 | + 26.6600 | 21 | 0 | 18 |
13 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | HVM Racing | Lotus | 60 | + 28.4369 | 25 | 0 | 17 |
14 | 4 | J. R. Hildebrand | Panther Racing | Chevrolet | 59 | + 1 lap † | 19 | 0 | 16 |
15 | 67 | Josef Newgarden (R) | Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing | Honda | 59 | + 1 lap | 12 | 0 | 15 |
16 | 2 | Ryan Briscoe | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 59 | + 1 lap | 7 | 0 | 14 |
17 | 3 | Hélio Castroneves | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 59 | + 1 lap | 8 | 0 | 13 |
18 | 5 | E. J. Viso | KV Racing Technology | Chevrolet | 59 | + 1 lap | 5 | 0 | 12 |
19 | 38 | Graham Rahal | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 58 | + 2 laps | 17 | 0 | 12 |
20 | 15 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda | 38 | Contact | 11 | 0 | 12 |
21 | 27 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport
|
Chevrolet | 38 | Contact | 13 | 0 | 12 |
22 | 18 | Justin Wilson | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda | 28 | Mechanical | 10 | 0 | 12 |
23 | 19 | James Jakes | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda | 26 | Mechanical | 23 | 0 | 12 |
24 | 7 | Sébastien Bourdais | Dragon Racing
|
Chevrolet | 24 | Mechanical | 9 | 0 | 12 |
25 | 8 | Rubens Barrichello | KV Racing Technology | Chevrolet | 11 | Mechanical | 24 | 0 | 10 |
† Hildebrand penalised 1 lap for receiving service during the red-flag period.[43]
Source: IndyCar[33] |
Notes: 1 Points include 1 point for pole position and 2 points for most laps led.
Post-race
The race, which was moved from
Standings after the race
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|
References
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External links