Scott Dixon has taken the first victory of this 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series in the streets of Long Beach. The Kiwi driver achieved his best result ever in this place. Pole sitter, Helio Castroneves finished second and now he’s 3 points behind the championship leader, Juan Pablo Montoya –who completes the today’s podium.
Third race of the season, second in a street circuit; Team Penske first row started had break when Scott Dixon overtook at turn 1, Juan Pablo Montoya.
The only yellow flag that we had today was on lap 5 due to some debris from Gabby Chaves car, after his battle for 17th position with Jack Hawksworth. This situation was a good chance for the back grid drivers to change their tyres for first time. But, Filippi stole his car and this made Power to try to enter in the pits from outside, but the current championship winner, stole his car too, and lost a lap with the leaders.
When the green flag came back, Castroneves and Dixon use to save fuel, Montoya did the same but his teammate, Simon Pagenaud took advantage of this to overtake the Colombian for third place.
Montoya was the first leader to pit stop on lap 29, then Castroneves, Dixon and Pagenaud did the same. Dixon quit the pits in first place because Castroneves had to wait for Kanaan to pit, losing some crucial second for the race progress.
On a Chevy dominance, the second pit stop didn’t change the results, it only took easy for Montoya to overtake Pagenaud for third place.
Finally, Scott Dixon takes his first ever win in Long Beach and becomes the fifth driver with more wins ever in the history of IndyCar Series – a total of 36. This victory helps Dixon to reach fourth place in the standings. Third place in the standing is Tony Kanaan who thanks to his consistency, the oldest driver in the grid manage to be fifth today. Second in the standing is Helio Castroneves that today finishes second too. The vice-champion is now 3 points behind the championship leader, Juan Pablo Montoya that completes the today’s podium.
Results:
Pos. | Car | Driver | Team | Lap Time | |
1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 80 Laps | |
2 | 3 | Hélio Castroneves | Team Penske | +2,222 | |
3 | 2 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | +13,486 | |
4 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | +13,738 | |
5 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | +14,624 | |
6 | 11 | Sébastien Bourdais | KV Racing Technology | +15,082 | |
7 | 67 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | +18,839 | |
8 | 27 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | +33,947 | |
9 | 26 | Carlos Muñoz | Andretti Autosport | +34,959 | |
10 | 8 | Sebastian Saavedra | Chip Ganassi Racing | +35,535 | |
11 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | +37,462 | |
12 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | +38,771 | |
13 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | +40,334 | |
14 | 41 | Jack Hawksworth | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | +41,274 | |
15 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | +44,387 | |
16 | 98 | Gabby Chaves (R) | Bryan Herta Autosport | +46,658 | |
17 | 18 | Connor Daly (R) | Dale Coyne Racing | +50,057 | |
18 | 14 | Takuma Sato | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | +53,804 | |
19 | 7 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | +1:39,796 | |
20 | 1 | Will Power | Team Penske | 1 Lap | |
21 | 19 | Francesco Dracone (R) | Dale Coyne Racing | 2 Laps | |
22 | 20 | Luca Filippi (R) | CFH Racing | 3 Laps | |
23 | 4 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | 11 Laps |