Race report
St. Pete IndyCar: Top 10 quotes after race
Bourdais drives from last to first in St. Petersburg win
Photo by: Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images
| Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | Pits | Retirement | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 |  Sébastien Bourdais |
110 | 2:04'32.4153 | 95.391 | 3 | 53 | ||||
| "A lot of things come back. I caught myself thinking about 2003, when obviously we started the opposite. We dominated the weekend, were on pole, cleared the field, then all hell broke loose. I found myself tapping the wall in Turn 8, threw it away. It was kind of redemption day here. To come out on top with obviously a lot of friends and family on-site, the whole community supporting the effort, it was just a great feeling. I couldn't really be any happier for Honda and Dale for giving me the opportunity to put the band back together and make it happen. Everybody works really, really hard. We're a small group. There is nobody at the shop that doesn't travel. But it works. It's a great little group. We're sure not going to stop there. We're just going to keep on trying." | |||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud |
110 | 2:04'42.7661 | 10.3508 | 10.3508 | 95.259 | 3 | 41 | ||
| "It's definitely a champion team for regrouping like they did, understanding the issue we had in qualifying. This morning in the warmup, I was back home in my car. It was great to get that feeling back. The race, the car was fantastic. We got very lucky at the start, I would say. We went through the chaos. I think God had something to play with it actually, because he put the car back where it needed to go. Very lucky. Then after that, we were a bit lucky with strategy. But that was actually the plan. So thanks to (strategist) Kyle Moyer and (engineer) Ben Bretzman for their work on that. They gave me some clean air. We had to save quite a bit of fuel to manage till the end. (Sebastien) Bourdais was untouchable today. It's 1-2 French. Sorry for the French Revolution, guys. I'm very happy for him. It's been his hometown actually. He's been here since he moved to America. With Dale Coyne and Honda, they've shown a lot of strength. Fantastic for them. I wish it was P1 for me, P2 for him. Next time maybe. But very happy for him. Very happy for second. We started second last year as well. Hopefully it's our good luck charm." | |||||||||||
| 3 | 9 |  Scott Dixon |
110 | 2:04'59.9138 | 27.4985 | 17.1477 | 95.041 | 3 | 35 | ||
| "It started off a little bit rough. We lost a spot at the start and then there was the mysterious caution. It was a bit strange - I don't know why they were yellow for such a small piece of debris that wasn't even on the racing line. That pretty much put us in the toilet right there. I will go see what the story was there. We had good speed and a good GE LED car to overtake. We passed a lot of cars both on strategy and on-track. It wasn't the day we had hoped for obviously but it was better than a lot of other results we've had here over the years." | |||||||||||
| 4 | 28 |  Ryan Hunter-Reay |
110 | 2:05'08.5300 | 36.1147 | 8.6162 | 94.932 | 4 | 32 | ||
| "It was a wild weekend. From the ups and downs of braking issues in second practice and then warmup this morning, we definitely earned this one. We fixed engine calibration issues early on (in the race), got out in front of the pace car by about a second or two keeping us on the lead lap. To finish today fourth was just awesome. This No. 28 DHL Honda team has done a great job all day. To fight back like that, I had to keep coming spot after spot really earning it, then there at the end I got that spot back from my teammate Sato. We had a lot of fun out there driving every last drop out of the car, and it's great to be back in the role and into the swing of things. Hopefully we can get the DHL Honda team back on the podium where we belong, but a fourth-place finish is a good start. This whole team has done a great job; Andretti Autosport has been working hard. We had some great pace, showed good promise and I'm looking forward to the next race." | |||||||||||
| 5 | 26 |  Takuma Sato |
110 | 2:05'08.5828 | 36.1675 | 0.0528 | 94.931 | 3 | 31 | ||
| "I think it was a tremendous effort by everyone on the team. I've probably had one of the hardest Fridays, so it was a difficult and challenging weekend. I definitely think my teammates helped me and the whole engineering team. Given the circumstances I think we did the best we could in qualifying and I was extremely happy with the result. Today was a tough race, but I think a fourth and fifth finish for Andretti Autosport is a fantastic result, especially for my first race with the team." | |||||||||||
| 6 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves |
110 | 2:05'14.4438 | 42.0285 | 5.8610 | 94.857 | 4 | 28 | ||
| "For someone who started 16th and finished sixth, it's pretty darn good. The No. 3 Hitachi Chevrolet boys did an excellent job. We had a little bit of luck and no luck. There was an accident that could have helped us out to finish on the podium, but we unfortunately got a piece in our nose so we had to take it off and stop again. Great job for everyone Team Penske and Hitachi Group, especially on the pit stop when we were able to beat Marco (Andretti) in the end so that we could finish in the sixth position. Well done. Now, we move on to the next." | |||||||||||
| 7 | 27 | Marco Andretti |
110 | 2:05'21.9370 | 49.5217 | 7.4932 | 94.763 | 3 | 26 | ||
| "We started P15; I would've liked to have seen a better pace. We were struggling overall with grip, not going one way or the other. We hung on to salvage a top 10 with seventh, and that's what we needed to do on days like this. After qualifying where we did, you gotta take a top 10. We also got a yellow in our favor today and that's what it's going to take to be just as lucky as good. Hopefully we can be both all year and stay strong in points for the hhgregg team." | |||||||||||
| 8 | 2 | Josef Newgarden |
110 | 2:05'22.4596 | 50.0443 | 0.5226 | 94.756 | 3 | 24 | ||
| "It was a good day for the Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet. We were a top-five car - maybe even a podium car. The yellows just didn't fall our way and we found ourselves caught out during that first stint. Tim (Cindric, race strategist) was going to bring me in, but we had just passed pit lane as the caution came out. I've been caught out by those type of yellows before and I've been the beneficiary of those type of yellows. That is the risk in this type of racing and sometimes it's just the way it all plays outs. A top 10 is not ideal, but it could have been worse. We finished the race and learned a lot. I feel like it's a good starting points for our team. It's nice to get this first race under our belt and out of the way. It's been a great first weekend with the team. We got what we needed out of it." | |||||||||||
| 9 | 5 |  James Hinchcliffe |
110 | 2:05'31.2781 | 58.8628 | 8.8185 | 94.645 | 3 | 23 | ||
| "Honestly a pretty disappointing result. We started on the inside of Row 2, got a good start and slipped into second...Did well on the restart and led pretty much the entire first stint. We had a bit of a tire advantage - we started on the sticker Firestone reds, other guys were on used tires - but from there everything kind of unraveled. The yellow caught us off guard; a bunch of the guys behind us had already pitted, so that kind of put us behind the eight ball. As the race went on, the track wasn't coming to us as it normally does, so unfortunately it all kind of went wrong for us after the start. A lot to be happy for, a lot of positives, though, like the pace of the Arrow Electronics Honda. There's not a whole lot you can do about the way the yellow flags fall - that was a tough break. I think we would have had a solid top five if it wasn't for that, and that's something we can build off of heading into Long Beach." | |||||||||||
| 10 | 19 |  Ed Jones |
110 | 2:05'34.2764 | 1'01.8611 | 2.9983 | 94.608 | 4 | 20 | ||
| "It was a good race for us, both myself and (Sebastien Bourdais). It's great for the team, great momentum moving forward. Tenth for me debut is a fantastic result and it just shows how hard the team has worked over the winter period to develop it and make it stronger and that is all credit to Dale (Coyne) and Honda as well. I've learned a lot and can't wait until the next round (at Long Beach.) | |||||||||||
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