2010 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

March 2026 March 2026 February 2025 USA St. Petersburg St. Petersburg street & airport racing circuit.svg March 29 2010 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2nd IndyCar Series Streets of St. Petersburg Temporary street circuit 1.800 2.897 100 180.000 289.682 62 °F °C, scattered clouds Will Power Team Penske 1:01.6026 AUS E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology 1:03.8605 80 VEN Will Power Team Penske AUS Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing GBR Ryan Briscoe Team Penske AUS 2009 2011 The 2010 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the second race of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The race took place on March 29, on the 1.800 mi km on temporary street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was telecast by ESPN2 in the United States. The event was due to take place on March 28 and telecast on ABC, but was postponed by series officials due to safety concerns after torrential rain fell on the circuit.http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/34981-race-postponed-to-10-a-m-march-29/ Dave Lewandowski Race postponed to 10 a.m. March 29 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-03-28 2010-03-28 https://web.archive.org/web/20100331174001/http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/34981-race-postponed-to-10-a-m-march-29/ 2010-03-31 dead Report Background January 2011 Practice and qualifying January 2011 Race On the day of the race, torrential rain fell on the circuit, and the series officials decided to postpone the race to the next day as they deemed the track to be too wet. The race started as scheduled on Monday, however due to earlier rain, there were damp patches in certain areas of the track. Will Power, the polesitter and the winner of the opening race in São Paulo led the field ahead of Marco Andretti. Further down the field, both Mike Conway and Dario Franchitti ran on to the damp patches and spun in different areas of the race track, bringing out the caution. Franchitti suffered light contact with the wall and had to be refired, but was able to stay on the lead lap with no major damage to his car. The race went green on the fourth lap, and Andretti did not take too long to take the lead from Power, who struggled for tyre temperature and quickly dropped to fourth place. Andretti only led for one lap before surrendering the lead to Scott Dixon, who passed him into turn 1. As the stint progressed, Will Power began to find pace and was back into second by lap 19, whereas Andretti had dropped to fourth behind Power's Penske teammate, Hélio Castroneves. The second caution of the race came out at one-quarter distance when Takuma Sato, running in ninth place, outbraked himself into turn 3 and buried himself in the tyres, and negated the 7 second lead which Scott Dixon had built over his pursuers. During this caution, the race leaders made their first pitstops of the day whereas some drivers further down the field stayed out. Vítor Meira took the lead ahead of Raphael Matos and Dario Franchitti, with Dixon in ninth place. When the track went green, Meira comfortably held on to the lead, with most of the action occurring mid-pack as the drivers who had pitted under the caution sought to make their way up the field on new tyres. Mario Moraes and Dixon came together in turn 1 while battling for 7th, which left Dixon with a damaged front wing and Moraes with a flat tire. Both drivers had to pit at the end of the lap for repairs and rejoined at the tail of the field, along with Marco Andretti who had to pit for a flat tire after collecting debris. Meira, Matos and Franchitti all pitted within ten laps after the green flag was waved, and Ryan Briscoe took the lead on lap 41. He was followed by Hideki Mutoh, but the Japanese driver soon came under attack from Hélio Castroneves, the first of the drivers who had pitted under the second caution. On lap 47, Dan Wheldon, who was running just outside the top ten suffered a suspension failure at turn 1 which sent his car straight into that of Mario Moraesin front of him. Both drivers were unhurt but this resulted in the third caution of the race coming out. The lead trio of Briscoe, Mutoh and Castroneves were among the drivers who decided to pit, and Will Power who was running fourth stayed out and took the lead. Power comfortably led at the restart, and set about building a gap to the cars of Justin Wilson and E. J. Viso who were running second and third. The man on the move was Scott Dixon, who in two green laps had moved from eighth to fourth and was soon pressuring third-placed Viso. Dixon's Ganassi teammate Franchitti however found himself at the tail of the field again after having to pit for a flat tire. On lap 65, Castroneves made a move on countryman Raphael Matos at turn 3. The move pushed Matos wide, and Mike Conway attempted to follow Castroneves through, however his car was not fully ahead of Matos's and they touched at turn 4, with Conway ending up in the wall and a full course caution being called. With 34 laps left, the entire field took the opportunity to come in under yellow and fill their cars with fuel to the end. The only exception was Vitor Meira, as he had yet to use the red-walled soft compound tires, and the A. J. Foyt team believed that the tyres would not last for a long stint. Meira thus led ahead of Viso (who had pitted just before the caution), Power, Wilson and Briscoe who had moved up 4 spots on pit lane. Meira led for four laps after the green came out before being forced to make his final stop. Viso took the lead but immediately slowed with the gearbox problem and dropped way back, eventually having to pit for repairs and rejoining three laps down. Will Power thus found himself back in the lead ahead of Wilson, Briscoe and Dixon. Dixon did not last much longer, as he crashed into the outside wall after clipping the inside wall with his right rear tire at turn 5 and the caution came out again. A five-lap period under caution eased any fuel worries anyone had, and once the track went green, Power led the field again. Unlike the previous occasion, he was unable to build a large gap to the second-placed car of Wilson. Briscoe and Castroneves kept a watching brief on the two leaders, and behind them Dario Franchitti was on the charge, passing cars one after the other. At the front, Justin Wilson was able to keep Power honest but never got close enough to make an overtaking move, and the Australian crossed the line to make it two wins out of two. Wilson was second ahead of Power's two teammates, Briscoe and Castroneves. Franchitti's late race charge took him to fifth place having passed Tagliani with three laps left. Danica Patrick, despite being on the red tires in the last stint finished seventh ahead of Matos, Graham Rahal and Tony Kanaan. 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 13–24, 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/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g11.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying, Round 1 – Group 1 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-03-27 2010-03-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20110605131002/http://www.indycar.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g11.pdf 2011-06-05 dead Group 2http://www.indyracing.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g21.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying, Round 1 – Group 2 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-03-27 2010-03-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20110713030113/http://www.indyracing.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r1g21.pdf 2011-07-13 dead Top 12http://www.indyracing.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r21.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying – Top 12 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-03-27 2010-03-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20110713030137/http://www.indyracing.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r21.pdf 2011-07-13 dead Fast 6http://www.indyracing.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r31.pdf Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg: Qualifying – Fast 6 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-03-27 2010-03-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20110713030142/http://www.indyracing.com/var/assets/indycar-results-quals-r31.pdf 2011-07-13 dead 1 12 AUS Will Power Team Penske 1:02.0440 1:01.4816 1:01.6026 2 11 BRA Tony Kanaan Andretti Autosport 1:01.9094 1:01.8103 1:01.8797 3 9 NZL Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:01.7912 1:01.6617 1:02.0820 4 22 GBR Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:02.0694 1:01.8727 1:02.1992 5 3 BRA Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 1:01.8881 1:01.8966 1:02.2118 6 26 USA Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 1:02.1774 1:01.8771 1:02.3461 7 37 USA Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 1:02.1101 1:01.8979 8 77 CAN Alex Tagliani FAZZT Race Team 1:02.0521 1:01.9692 9 8 VEN E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology 1:02.1254 1:01.9807 10 24 GBR Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:02.1081 1:02.0434 11 5 JPN Takuma Sato (R) KV Racing Technology 1:02.2969 1:02.4205 12 06 JPN Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 1:02.4473 1:02.5113 13 10 GBR Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 1:02.1944 14 78 SUI Simona de Silvestro (R) HVM Racing 1:02.4493 15 4 GBR Dan Wheldon Panther Racing 1:02.2557 16 67 USA Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher Racing 1:02.5044 17 14 BRA Vítor Meira A. J. Foyt Enterprises 1:02.2688 18 34 BRA Mario Romancini (R) Conquest Racing 1:02.7366 19 6 AUS Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 1:02.3205 20 32 BRA Mario Moraes KV Racing Technology 1:02.8294 21 7 USA Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 1:02.4904 22 19 GBR Alex Lloyd (R) Dale Coyne Racing 1:03.4793 23 2 BRA Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon Racing de Ferran Motorsports 1:03.0144 24 18 VEN Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing 1:08.5058 Race Pos No. Driver Team Laps Time/Status Grid LapsLed Points 1 12 AUS Will Power Team Penske 100 2:07:05.7968 1 50 53 2 22 GBR Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 100 + 0.8244 4 0 40 3 6 AUS Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 100 + 4.7290 19 9 35 4 3 BRA Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 100 + 5.1699 5 0 32 5 10 GBR Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 100 + 22.2172 13 3 30 6 77 CAN Alex Tagliani FAZZT Race Team 100 + 29.3224 8 0 28 7 7 USA Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 100 + 30.3360 21 0 26 8 2 BRA Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon Racing de Ferran Motorsports 100 + 30.6695 23 3 24 9 67 USA Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher Racing 100 + 30.8426 16 0 22 10 11 BRA Tony Kanaan Andretti Autosport 100 + 31.3508 2 0 20 11 37 USA Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 100 + 31.6286 7 0 19 12 26 USA Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 100 + 32.1703 6 1 18 13 34 BRA Mario Romancini (R) Conquest Racing 100 + 39.8086 18 0 17 14 06 JPN Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 100 + 39.9949 12 0 16 15 14 BRA Vítor Meira A. J. Foyt Enterprises 100 + 56.0593 17 12 15 16 78 SUI Simona de Silvestro (R) HVM Racing 99 + 1 Lap 14 0 14 17 8 VEN E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology 97 + 3 Laps 9 1 13 18 9 NZL Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 73 Contact 3 21 12 19 24 GBR Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 64 Contact 10 0 12 20 4 GBR Dan Wheldon Panther Racing 46 Contact 15 0 12 21 32 BRA Mario Moraes KV Racing Technology 45 Contact 20 0 12 22 5 JPN Takuma Sato (R) KV Racing Technology 24 Contact 11 0 12 23 19 GBR Alex Lloyd (R) Dale Coyne Racing 14 Contact 22 0 12 24 18 VEN Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing 7 Handling 24 0 12 OFFICIAL RACE REPORT Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 AUS Will Power 103 2 USA Ryan Hunter-Reay 59 GBR Justin Wilson 59 GBR Dario Franchitti 59 5 BRA Raphael Matos 56 Note: Only the top five positions are included. References 2 External links Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2010 2010 São Paulo Indy 300 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 2009 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2011 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Category:Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Category:21st century in St. Petersburg, Florida Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg