Home Single-Seaters Indycar RACE. Castroneves wins at Texas and takes the championship lead

RACE. Castroneves wins at Texas and takes the championship lead

09/06/2013

In this race of the Indycar circuit Texas, circuit largest banking in the championship, 24 ° where there are the greatest top speeds and maximum with 4g of force for drivers during 228 laps, has won Helio Castroneves with a superiority very clear that from now spread a little more in the overall championship

The race would start after the normal protocol Indycar and a reminder to those affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. After Start your engines! the race is launched, Power could not maintain the position of the pole, the leadership was for Andretti, followed by Reay, very fast both of them Andretti team would pick the first and second place, setting the pace for the first part of the race

A 5 laps to start, Pippa´s Mann engine would break and the first caution appeared, Viso (Andretti team also) was in the top5 has been very fast in this race and combative. Servia would take this yellow flag to go pits and start his tactical overtakes.

On lap 15 the race was relaunched have continuous overtakes being shuffled al drivers behind the fourth. Andretti ahead controlled the race. Overall the race was characterized by the use of tyres and strategy, some drivers looking for trying to make one pit stop less. Viso maintained this strategy and was losing positions but with patience and a little luck (second yellow flags) recover those lost. This second caution would cause head race pilots entered the pits. The positions were now 1. Reay 2. Newgarden 3. Andretti 4. 5.Power Castroneves. Servia has got to be the 10th. Andretti had a problem with pit stop gas pump

On lap 66 the race relaunch at this time there were only 14 drivers on the lead lap, drivers fight now was between real position overtakes and drivers trying to recover the leader lap. At 20 laps after the restart Reay soon enter the pits, which has left leading the race Castroneves and Andretti in a nice duel fighting wheel to wheel fighting, Andretti very angry with traffic on lap 102 when he was second after Castroneves very close to him, he decided go into pits. From now on, the fight would be who has the best strategy to win because Castroneves would stop some laps later

On lap 113 would be another Caution motivated by Servia spin when he was in the top 10 and making a good result. At this time the drivers Castroneves and follow him on pit strategy as Viso would stop and Wilson. After the restart, which would Castroneves ten laps later and would make a very fast pace after 20 laps the runner Castroneves got 10 seconds over Power followed by Viso, Reay and Carpenter

By this time night appeared in Texas and made the setup of the flaps to be changed at each pit stop. Castroneves was adapted perfectly to the track conditions at night and managed to have a high rhythm that made only 5 of the pilots ended up in the same lap as the first driver. Moreover Viso has been penalized with Drive Through after a tire hitting in the pit exit.

From there to 60 laps to go and appeared the pit window to reach the limit of non tyre troubles. The head of the race stopped in 50 laps to go, while Andretti and Kanaan with its strategy remained on track for 20 laps more, his only chance was waiting for a yellow flag will benefit them, this was not happened and Castroneves was controlling their difference during last laps. Reay was second while Kanaan would start a chase for the podium at 30 laps to end up getting it, fourth Carpenter and fifth Andretti. Castroneves is the 7th different winner this season, will see what happens in the next race that will be in Milwaukee, another oval track day on 15th at 22hours CET +1

This is the top5 championship

1. Castroneves 259

2. Andretti 237

3. Reay 232

4. Kanaan 195

5. Sato 194

Race Classification

1. (6) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 228, Running

2. (3) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 228, Running

3. (13) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 228, Running

4. (9) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 228, Running

5. (2) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 228, Running