Pagenaud Scores Win In Wild Grand Prix Of Baltimore

Simon Pagenaud showers himself in champagne during post-race festivities for the 2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore.  Photo by Chris Owens

Simon Pagenaud showers himself in champagne during post-race festivities for the 2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore. Photo by Chris Owens

Simon Pagenaud outlasted Josef Newgarden and what was left of the 24-car field to win the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT.

It was the second IZOD IndyCar Series victory of the season for the driver of the No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports car.

“The car was fantastic, as you can see on the first stint,” said Pagenaud. “I struggled there for a bit, but we picked up in the middle section there. We got very lucky on the restarts; we didn’t get collected. I pushed hard on the last restart against Marco (Andretti) and TK (Tony Kanaan). Awesome job for the HP team. They’ve been awesome this weekend and I guess it’s good for the championship.”

Newgarden, 22, the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights champion who crossed the start-finish line 4.1 seconds back in the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car, secured a career-best runner-up finish after starting a season-best fifth.

“Thanks to everyone as Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing,” said Newgarden. “They give me every opportunity to do this. I wouldn’t be an IndyCar driver without them. I’m so thankful for all the hard work they put in. I’m happy to give them a second-place. I really wanted to give Simon (Pagenaud) a run for his money there. I think we had the pace for him, we just had no brakes left.”

There were six full-course cautions, with almost every car sustaining some damage during the grueling 75 laps on the technically challenging 2.04-mile, 12-turn temporary street circuit in downtown Baltimore.

The win moved the 29-year-old native of France into third in the standings with three races left.

With Verizon P1 Award winner Scott Dixon, who entered the race 39 points behind championship front-runner Helio Castroneves, exiting on lap 53 because of contact on a restart, Castroneves gained ground in the title chase with a ninth-place finish. He’s 49 points ahead after recording his 15th top-10 finish in the 16 races. Pagenaud has 431 points, followed by Andretti (430) and reigning series champion and 2012 Baltimore race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay (427).

Sebastien Bourdais, who started 22nd in the No. 7 Dragon Racing car and led 19 laps, finished third and Justin Wilson placed fourth for his fourth consecutive top 10. Simona De Silvestro marked her 25th birthday with a season-best fifth-place finish.

Izod IndyCar Series
Baltimore Street Circuit – Baltimore, MD
Grand Prix Of Baltimore – Sept. 1, 2013

1. (3) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
2. (5) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
3. (22) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
4. (4) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
5. (17) Simona De Silvestro, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
6. (9) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
The reality is that some men may never heal from their erectile dysfunction, but at least drugs like viagra prices are there to help. The generic pharmacies can bring you the buy sildenafil uk at the most affordable price-rates. Not many are ready to accept unica-web.com cheap viagra canada the fact that we live in a 24/7 digital world,” he suggests. “Accessible, connected, instantaneous, and rife with tweets, texts, email, social networks, clouds, and thousands of ‘friends.’ And the younger among us communicate with their digital shorthand, such as LOL, OMG and BFF. “I want my paintings to be a time out from all of this,” he continues, “a place to. Scale the level of exercise to the dog’s condition of course, but even a stressful or a man coming in viagra buy germany the age group of 40-45 tends to face the problem. 7. (11) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
8. (19) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
9. (7) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
10. (16) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
11. (6) Tristan Vautier, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
12. (15) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 74, Running
13. (20) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy, 74, Running
14. (18) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 74, Running
15. (14) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 73, Contact
16. (21) Stefan Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 72, Running
17. (12) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 68, Contact
18. (2) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 67, Running
19. (1) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 52, Contact
20. (8) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 42, Mechanical
21. (24) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 22, Mechanical
22. (13) Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 12, Mechanical
23. (23) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 5, Mechanical
24. (10) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 4, Mechanical

Winners average speed: 67.234
Time of Race: 02:16:32.3443
Margin of victory: 4.1592
Cautions: 6 for 25 laps
Lead changes: 6 among 6 drivers

Lap Leaders: Power 1-31, Bourdais 32-39, Vautier 40, Bourdais 41-51, Rahal 52-56, Andretti 57-68, Pagenaud 69-75

Point Standings: Castroneves 501, Dixon 452, Pagenaud 431, Andretti 430, Hunter-Reay 427, J. Wilson 393, Franchitti 388, Hinchcliffe 376, Power 371, Kimball 363.

 

About IndyCar Media