2014 Grand Prix of Indianapolis

  2014 GP Indianapolis

Race details
4th round of the 2014 IndyCar Series season
Date	May 10, 2014
Official name	Grand Prix of Indianapolis
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
Course	Road Course 2.439 mi / 3.925 km
Distance	82 laps, 200 mi / 321.87 km
Pole position
Driver	Sebastián Saavedra	KV Racing Technology
Time	1:23.8822
Fastest lap
Driver	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing
Time	1:10.4062 (on lap 76 of 82)
Podium
First	Simon Pagenaud	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Second	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport
Third	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske

The 2014 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the inaugural running of the event, was an IndyCar Series race held on May 10, 2014, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The fourth round of the 2014 IndyCar Series season, it was won by Simon Pagenaud of Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports.

Report

Background

The race was officially announced on October 1, 2013. The track's road course was formerly used by Formula One for the United States Grand Prix. The track featured various modifications: the track runs clockwise, with turn 1 entering the oval's turn 4 onto the road course. Turns 2 to 4 remain the same, while turn 5 and 6 became a chicane, and entered the Hulman Blvd. straight. Turn 7 is a 90-degree left turn into turns 8 and 9, leading into the oval's turn 2, which serves as the road course's turns 10 and 11. The oval's turn 1 is not entered, as the track follows the MotoGP format, with turns 12 to 14 leading into the front straight.^[1] The cars were also modified to fit the track's specifications, with fueling plugs on the opposite side.^[2]

A contest was held for fans to design the trophy for the event. Dan Nichols, a California native, beat out 150 other entries.^[3]

Qualifying

Qualifying took place on May 9. Rain had affected the track during the four sessions held. Prior to the Fast Six session, rain escalated, causing a red flag, which delayed qualifying for 20 minutes, before the six cars were sent onto the track. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the fastest during his qualifying attempt, with a lap time of 1:23.8480,^[4] but drove into a puddle of water, spinning out, bring out another red flag.^[5] As a result, Hunter-Reay was relegated to third, while Sebastián Saavedra was awarded the pole position.^[4]

Race

The race's honorary race starter was Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard; the event began with a standing start, but as the lights went out, pole-sitter Saavedra stalled, and was later hit by Carlos Muñoz and Mikhail Aleshin.^[6]

Race results

Pos	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Pit Stops^1	Grid	Laps Led	Points^2
1	Simon Pagenaud	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Honda	82	2:04:24.0261	9	4	6	51
2	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	82	+ 0.8906	8	3	18	41
3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	82	+ 1.8244	9	10	15	36
4	Sébastien Bourdais	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	82	+ 2.5406	9	7	1	33
5	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+ 5.3007	9	23		30
6	Ryan Briscoe	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+ 9.1914	10	14		28
7	Jack Hawksworth (R)	Bryan Herta Autosport	Honda	82	+ 14.6161	9	2	31	29
8	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	82	+ 18.5958	11	5		24
9	Takuma Sato	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	82	+ 20.9721	10	16		20
10	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+ 21.4539	10	9		20
11	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	82	+ 26.4750	9	18	4	20
12	Oriol Servià	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	82	+ 29.6561	10	22	7	19
13	Carlos Huertas (R)	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	82	+ 33.0827	9	17		17
14	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	82	+ 1:04.2370	11	13		16
15	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	82	+ 1:08.6263	9	6		15
16	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Chevrolet	81	+ 1 Lap	9	6		14
17	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda	80	+ 2 Laps	10	15		13
18	Martin Plowman (R)	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	80	+ 2 Laps	12	20		12
19	Mike Conway	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	58	Mechanical	5	24		11
20	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Honda	56	Contact	8	11		10
21	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	50	Contact	8	12		9
22	Franck Montagny	Andretti Autosport	Honda	47	Contact	9	21		8
23	Sebastian Saavedra	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	0	Contact	0	1		8
24	Carlos Muñoz (R)	Andretti Autosport	Honda	0	Contact	0	19		6
25	Mikhail Aleshin (R)	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Honda	0	Contact	0	25		5

Notes

¹ Due to the crash on the starting grid, all cars went through pit lane behind the safety car for the first six laps. These passages were counted as pit stops.

² 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.

References

1. DiZinno, Tony (October 1, 2013). "Grand Prix of Indianapolis set for May 10, 2014 on revised course". NBC Sports. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
2. Garrett, Jerry (May 9, 2014). "Grand Prix Blazes New Trail at Indianapolis Speedway". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
3. Proffitt, Chris (May 7, 2014). "Calif. man wins contest to design Grand Prix of Indianapolis trophy". WRTV. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
4. DiZinno, Tony (May 9, 2014). "IndyCar: Sebastian Saavedra takes GP of Indy pole in bizarre session". NBC Sports. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
5. Associated Press (May 9, 2014). "INDYCAR: SAAVEDRA TAKES POLE FOR INAUGURAL GRAND PRIX OF INDIANAPOLIS". Foxsports.com. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
6. "Crash mars start of Indy Grand Prix". ESPN. May 11, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014.