2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

2013 Long Beach

Race details
3rd round of the 2013 IndyCar Series season
Date	April 21, 2013
Official name	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Location	Streets Of Long Beach Long Beach, California
Course	Temporary street circuit 1.968 mi / 3.167 km
Distance	80 laps 157.44 mi / 253.375 km
Weather	Temperatures up to 81 °F (27 °C); wind speeds up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)[1]
Pole position
Driver	Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time	1:07.2379
Fastest lap
Driver	E. J. Viso (Andretti Autosport)
Time	(on lap of 80)
Podium
First	Takuma Sato (A. J. Foyt Enterprises)
Second	Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing)
Third	Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing)

The 2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the 39th annual running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach,^[2] and is also the third race of the 2013 IndyCar Series season, taking place on April 21, 2013 in Long Beach, California on its temporary street circuit. The race was won by Takuma Sato of A. J. Foyt Enterprises.

Report

Background

The first two rounds of the season were dominated by Andretti Autosport drivers James Hinchcliffe and defending series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, with Hinchcliffe winning the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and Hunter-Reay winning the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The defending race winner was Will Power.

Qualifying

Dario Franchitti of Chip Ganassi Racing won his first pole position of 2013 after posting a qualifying lap speed of 105.369 miles per hour (169.575 km/h) and a time of 1:07.2379. Ryan Hunter-Reay started in second with a speed of 105.282 miles per hour (169.435 km/h), while Will Power and Takuma Sato started in third and fourth, respectively.^[3] In the second group of the first session, Marco Andretti was penalized for interference, and did not advance, starting in 26th.^[4]

Starting grid

Row	Inside		Outside
1	10	Dario Franchitti	1	Ryan Hunter-Reay
2	12	Will Power	14	Takuma Sato
3	17	Mike Conway	3	Helio Castroneves
4	27	James Hinchcliffe	11	Tony Kanaan
5	83	Charlie Kimball	5	E. J. Viso
6	15	Graham Rahal	4	J. R. Hildebrand
7	16	James Jakes	2	A. J. Allmendinger
8	7	Sébastien Bourdais	67	Josef Newgarden
9	77	Simon Pagenaud	22	Oriol Servià
10	55	Tristan Vautier (R)	78	Simona de Silvestro
11	6	Sebastián Saavedra	98	Alex Tagliani
12	18	Ana Beatriz	20	Ed Carpenter
13	19	Justin Wilson	25	Marco Andretti
14	9	Scott Dixon

Race

Pole-sitter Dario Franchitti dominated the first 27 laps before falling behind Will Power. Power led until lap 30, in which he pitted, giving the lead to Takuma Sato, who did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the race to win his first career race in 52 starts,^[5] becoming the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar Series race.^[6] The win was A. J. Foyt Enterprises' first victory since Airton Daré won the Ameristar Casino Indy 200 at Kansas in 2002.^[7][8] Graham Rahal finished second, Justin Wilson and Franchitti finished third and fourth, respectively.^[9] J. R. Hildebrand, Oriol Servia, Marco Andretti, Simon Pagenaud, Simona de Silvestro and Helio Castroneves rounded out the top ten.^[10]

Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Pit Stops	Grid	Laps Led	Points^1
1	14	Takuma Sato	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	80	1:50:08.7155	2	4	50	53
2	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	80	+ 5.3612	2	11		40
3	19	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	80	+ 8.2386	3	24		35
4	10	Dario Franchitti	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	80	+ 12.3573	2	1	27	34
5	4	J. R. Hildebrand	Panther Racing	Chevrolet	80	+ 28.2402	2	12		30
6	22	Oriol Servià	Panther Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	80	+ 29.4683	2	18		28
7	25	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	80	+ 30.2703	3	25		26
8	77	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports	Honda	80	+ 31.8674	2	17		24
9	78	Simona de Silvestro	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	80	+ 33.1224	3	19		22
10	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	80	+ 33.4118	3	6		20
11	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	80	+ 33.6278	3	26		19
12	16	James Jakes	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	80	+ 35.0645	2	13		18
13	67	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda	80	+ 35.8945	3	16		17
14	18	Ana Beatriz	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	80	+ 36.3442	3	22		16
15	7	Sebastian Bourdais	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet	80	+ 36.5936	2	15		15
16	12	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	80	+ 43.0022	3	3	2	15
17	55	Tristan Vautier	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	80	+ 51.7961	5	27		13
18	20	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	80	+ 56.4533	4	23		12
19	98	Alex Tagliani	Barracuda Racing	Honda	79	+ 1 lap	5	21		11
20	11	Tony Kanaan	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	78	Contact	2	8		10
21	83	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	78	+ 2 laps	4	9		9
22	5	E. J. Viso	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	53	+ 27 laps	5	10		8
23	2	A. J. Allmendinger	Team Penske	Chevrolet	51	Mechanical	4	14		7
24	1	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	49	Contact	3	2	1	7
25	17	Mike Conway	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	38	Electrical	3	5		5
26	27	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	34	Contact	1	7		5
27	6	Sebastian Saavedra	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet	1	Contact	0	20		5

Notes

¹ Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.

Standings after the race

Helio Castroneves led the points standings after the race.

	Pos.	Driver	Points
	1	Helio Castroneves	99
9	2	Takuma Sato	93
1	3	Scott Dixon	89
	4	Marco Andretti	87
4	5	Justin Wilson	81
3	6	Ryan Hunter-Reay	73
12	7	Graham Rahal	66
	8	Will Power	62
3	9	Simona de Silvestro	62
5	10	James Hinchcliffe	61

• Note: Only the top ten positions are included.

References

1. "2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
2. "Guide To The 39th Annual Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach". KCBS-TV. 2013-04-01. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
3. Peltz, Jim (2013-04-20). "Dario Franchitti wins pole position for Long Beach Grand Prix". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
4. Weaver, Matt (2013-04-20). "IndyCar Long Beach 2013: Dario Franchitti scores much-needed pole". SB Nation. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
5. Weaver, Matt (2013-04-21). "Takuma Sato captures Grand Prix of Long Beach to become first Japanese driver to win in IndyCar". SB Nation. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
6. Lewandowski, Dave (2013-04-21). "Sato becomes 1st driver from Japan to win race". IndyCar Series. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
7. Associated Press (2013-04-21). "Takuma Sato wins Long Beach to become 1st Japanese driver to win in IndyCar". Fox News Channel. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
8. "Sato becomes first Japanese driver to win IndyCar race". USA Today. 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
9. Peltz, Jim (2013-04-21). "Takuma Sato makes history with victory at Long Beach Grand Prix". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
10. "2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach". Racing-Reference. Retrieved 2013-07-05.