2011 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

American IndyCar racing competition March 2026 March 2026 February 2025 USA St. Petersburg St. Petersburg street & airport racing circuit.svg March 27 2011 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 1st IndyCar Series Streets of St. Petersburg Temporary street circuit 1.800 2.897 100 180.000 289.682 85 °F °C, scattered clouds Will Power Team Penske 1:01.9625 AUS Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 1:03.8683 74 BRA Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing GBR Will Power Team Penske AUS Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology – Lotus BRA 2010 2012 The 2011 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the first race of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The race took place on March 27, on the 1.800 mi km on temporary street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was telecast by ABC in the United States. Report Background Dario Franchitti began the season as defending champion of the IndyCar Series, after a season-long battle with Will Power in 2010. It was Franchitti's second championship in the past three seasons. (The year he did not win, 2008, he was racing in NASCAR.) Other contenders for the 2011 championship include Franchitti's Chip Ganassi Racing teammates, Scott Dixon, Charlie Kimball, and Graham Rahal, the Penske Racing drivers, Ryan Briscoe, Hélio Castroneves, and Will Power, among others. Tony Kanaan left Andretti Autosport after the 2010 season and was now piloting the #82 entry for KV Racing Technology – Lotus. Briscoe, Castroneves, Power, and Rahal were all previous winners of the St. Petersburg race. The race marked the IndyCar debut or return for several drivers, including: Sébastien Bourdais (Champ Car champion, 2004–07) He would ultimately not start because of his car catching fire after a crash in the final practice. Oriol Servià (Champ Car driver 2000–2007, IRL in 2008, also ran in the 2009 Indy 500) Charlie Kimball J. R. Hildebrand James Jakes Race thumb|The Bay Shore Drive SE section of the race thumb|left|2011 HVM Entergy sponsored entry on the starting grid for the season opener. The first Indycar race to use double-file starts and restarts began anything but smoothly. On turn 1 of lap 1, five cars were involved in contact as the drivers fought for position. Helio Castroneves made contact with Marco Andretti's car, who ran up the back of Scott Dixon's machine and flipped upside down. Mike Conway, racing for the first time since last year's Indianapolis 500, was also caught in the pile-up, along with Briscoe. Castroneves, Briscoe, and Dixon would finish the day running, but had no chance for victory. Andretti Autosport took the brunt of the blow, with two of their drivers, Andretti and Conway, being knocked out of the race as a result. On the ensuing restart (lap 5) Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan passed Power to take first and second position respectively. The yellow flag came out again on lap 7 when E. J. Viso spun off the track, but without making contact, and green flag racing resumed by lap 10. Only two laps later however, the caution came out again for debris on the racetrack, and Sebastián Saavedra spun and stalled on the ensuing restart, bringing out yet another caution. In total, nine of the first 15 laps were run under yellow, leading many drivers and fans to question the new restart system. Will Power briefly regained the lead on lap 71 when Franchitti pitted, but he had to pit himself two laps later, and Franchitti won comfortably by 6.7 seconds. The main point of interest over the final 10 laps was the battle for 3rd place between the veteran Kanaan and second-year driver Simona de Silvestro. Kanaan was able to hold on and gain a podium place for his new team, KV-Lotus, but it was an impressive run by de Silvestro nonetheless. Classification Qualifying All cars were split into two groups of twelve, with the fastest six from each group going through to the "top 12" session. In this session, the fastest six cars progressed to the "Firestone Fast Six." The fastest driver in the final session claimed pole, with the rest of the cars lining up in session order, regardless of qualifying times. (fast six from 1–6, top 12 from 7–12 and round 1 from 13 to 24, with group 1 drivers occupying the odd–numbered grid positions, and group 2 drivers occupying the even–numbered grid positions. Pos No. Driver Team Group 1http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g19.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying, Round 1 – Group 1 IndyCar Series INDYCAR 2011-03-26 2011-03-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311201504/http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g19.pdf 2012-03-11 dead Group 2http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g29.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying, Round 1 – Group 2 IndyCar Series INDYCAR 2011-03-26 2011-03-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311201539/http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g29.pdf 2012-03-11 dead Top 12http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r29.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying – Top 12 IndyCar Series INDYCAR 2011-03-26 2011-03-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311201543/http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r29.pdf 2012-03-11 dead Fast 6http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r310.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying – Fast 6 IndyCar Series INDYCAR 2011-03-26 2011-03-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311201550/http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r310.pdf 2012-03-11 dead 1 12 AUS Will Power Team Penske 1:02.3384 1:02.1878 1:01.9625 2 10 GBR Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 1:02.3848 1:02.4136 1:02.2953 3 9 NZL Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:02.7788 1:02.4735 1:02.3975 4 27 GBR Mike Conway Andretti Autosport 1:02.8057 1:02.4244 1:02.5306 5 6 AUS Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 1:02.6031 1:02.5737 1:02.5744 6 22 GBR Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:02.9866 1:02.5573 1:02.7729 7 26 USA Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 1:03.0526 1:02.6312 8 82 BRA Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology – Lotus 1:02.9362 1:02.7818 9 3 BRA Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 1:02.6654 1:02.8204 10 77 CAN Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt Motorsports 1:02.9467 1:02.8225 11 5 JPN Takuma Sato KV Racing Technology – Lotus 1:03.0722 1:02.9312 12 38 USA Graham Rahal Chip Ganassi Racing 1:03.1224 1:03.0640 13 14 BRA Vítor Meira A. J. Foyt Enterprises 1:03.1315 14 28 USA Ryan Hunter–Reay Andretti Autosport 1:03.1778 15 02 ESP Oriol Servià Newman/Haas Racing 1:03.2434 16 17 BRA Raphael Matos AFS Racing 1:03.2594 17 78 SWI Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing 1:03.2724 18 19 FRA Sébastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing 1:03.3188 19 7 USA Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 1:03.3764 20 24 BRA Ana Beatriz (R) Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:03.8036 21 59 VEN E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology – Lotus 1:03.4065 22 18 GBR James Jakes (R) Dale Coyne Racing 1:03.8854 23 83 USA Charlie Kimball (R) Chip Ganassi Racing 1:03.5162 244 USA J. R. Hildebrand (R) Panther Racing 1:03.8256 25 34 COL Sebastián Saavedra (R) Conquest Racing 1:03.9696 Race Pos No. Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps Led Points 1 10 GBR Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 100 2:00:59.6886 2 94 52 2 12 AUS Will Power Team Penske 100 + 7.1612 1 6 41 3 82 BRA Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology – Lotus 100 + 16.1045 8 0 35 4 78 SWI Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing 100 + 16.5616 17 0 32 5 5 JPN Takuma Sato KV Racing Technology – Lotus 100 + 29.9435 11 0 30 6 77 CAN Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt Motorsports 100 + 30.4655 10 0 28 7 17 BRA Raphael Matos AFS Racing 100 + 31.5227 16 0 26 8 14 BRA Vítor Meira A. J. Foyt Enterprises 100 + 35.7291 13 0 24 9 02 ESP Oriol Servià Newman/Haas Racing 100 + 49.1432 15 0 22 10 22 GBR Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 100 + 56.8025 6 0 20 114 USA J. R. Hildebrand (R) Panther Racing 100 + 1:02.9747 24 0 19 12 7 USA Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 100 + 1:02.9748 19 0 18 13 34 COL Sebastián Saavedra (R) Conquest Racing 98 + 2 Laps 25 0 17 14 24 BRA Ana Beatriz (R) Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 98 + 2 Laps 20 0 16 15 18 GBR James Jakes (R) Dale Coyne Racing 97 + 3 Laps 22 0 15 16 9 NZL Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 96 + 4 Laps 3 0 14 17 38 USA Graham Rahal Chip Ganassi Racing 96 + 4 Laps 12 0 13 18 6 AUS Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 95 + 5 Laps 5 0 12 19 59 VEN E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology – Lotus 94 + 6 Laps 21 0 12 20 3 BRA Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 85 + 15 Laps 9 0 12 21 28 USA Ryan Hunter–Reay Andretti Autosport 58 Handling 14 0 12 22 83 USA Charlie Kimball (R) Chip Ganassi Racing 38 Contact 23 0 12 23 27 GBR Mike Conway Andretti Autosport 1 Contact 4 0 12 24 26 USA Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 0 Contact 7 0 12 25 19 FRA Sébastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing 0 Did not start 18 0 5 OFFICIAL RACE REPORT Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 GBR Dario Franchitti 52 2 AUS Will Power 41 3 BRA Tony Kanaan 35 4 SWI Simona de Silvestro 32 5 JPN Takuma Sato 30 Note: Only the top five positions are included. References 2 External links IndyCar Results Page Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2011 2010 Cafés do Brasil Indy 300 2011 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 2010 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Category:March 2011 sports events in the United States Category:Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Category:21st century in St. Petersburg, Florida