Castroneves Finishes Second in IndyCar Season Opener
March 24, 2013
THE RACE
Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. (1.8-mile street circuit) – March 24, 2013
THE RESULTS
No. 3 Hitachi Dallara/Chevrolet
Starting Position: 5
Finishing Position: 2
Status: Running
Current Series Position: 2
THE RACE REVIEW
· With his 30th career second-place finish Sunday, Castroneves broke a three-way tie for eighth place on the all-time list of runner-up results and he passed Tony Kanaan for 11th all-time with 107 top-five finishes.
·Sunday marked Castroneves’ fifth podium and sixth top-five in eight career races on the Streets of St. Pete.
· Castroneves led a race-high 42 laps in Sunday’s race. He has now led 205 laps over the course of four races on the streets of St. Pete in his career and extends his lead among active drivers with 4,771 career laps led.
· On Lap 27, Castroneves passed his teammate Power for the race lead with a strong move on the race restart.
· In the key move of the race, James Hinchcliffe passed Castroneves for the race lead on Lap 84. Castroneves applied pressure to Hinchcliffe for the remainder of the 110-lap event but he had to settle for second place at the checkered flag.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
“(Race engineer) Jonathan (Diuguid) and the entire Hitachi crew gave me an incredible car today. The car was so hooked on where we needed it to be.” – Helio Castroneves
“Unfortunately it was a long yellow and I guess my tires weren’t warmed up enough. I was braking at the same point every time but my rears locked up and (it) gave him room for the pass.” – Helio Castroneves
"We were starting to lose (on the red tires) with about four laps to go. I already went from hero to zero so I said, you know what? I don't want to finish this race with even fewer points. Great day for the Hitachi team, it's a shame we let it go, but Hinch did a great job." – Helio Castroneves