2012 Grand Prix of Baltimore

The Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT was an open-wheel IndyCar motor race and held as the fourteenth and penultimate round of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. It took place on Sunday, September 2, 2012. The race was contested over 75 laps at the 2.040-mile (3.283 km) temporary street circuit at Baltimore, Maryland, United States and was co-located with the Baltimore Sports Car Challenge motor race.

United States 2012 Grand Prix of Baltimore
Race details
11th round of the 2012 IndyCar Series season
DateSeptember 2, 2012
Official nameGrand Prix of Baltimore
LocationStreets of Baltimore
CourseTemporary street circuit
2.040 mi / 3.283 km
Distance75 laps
153.000 mi / 246.225 km
WeatherTemperatures reaching up to 84.9 °F (29.4 °C); dropping down to 81.4 °F (27.4 °C) by the end of the event[1]
Pole position
DriverWill Power (Team Penske)
Time1:17.9750
Fastest lap
DriverWill Power (Team Penske)
Time1:19.0055 (on lap 64 of 75)
Podium
FirstRyan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport)
SecondRyan Briscoe (Team Penske)
ThirdSimon Pagenaud (Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports)

The race was won by American racer Ryan Hunter-Reay racing for Andretti Autosport. Hunter-Reay finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Australian driver Ryan Briscoe driving for Team Penske with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud finishing third for Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports. It was Hunter-Reay's fourth win for the year. With just one race left in the season, Hunter-Reay's victory, coupled with Will Power finishing in sixth position closed the gap between the two championship rivals to just 17 points.

Race

edit

The race was held on September 2, 2012 at 2:40 PM EDT

Power qualified on the pole and led the opening stanza of the race. Hunter-Reay charged from 11th to fifth before Ed Carpenter crashed early at the chicane. Mike Conway and Bruno Junqueira were spun around in two separate incidents at turn 6, and Sebastien Bourdais spun at the final corner as the rain started to fall on the track. On Lap 19, Marco Andretti would crash at turn 1, and the yellow ensured that the leaders would switch to wet tires. As the leaders came to pit, Hunter-Reay stayed out and took the lead.

As the race restarted, Dario Franchitti was turned around by Simona de Silvestro, James Hinchcliffe and Charlie Kimball had retired from the race with mechanical issues.

With seven Laps to go, Hunter-Reay was right behind race leader Ryan Briscoe before the final restart. Briscoe slowed for the restart and Hunter-Reay blew by him to take the lead. In turn 4 on the same lap, Mike Conway got into the tire barrier and Justin Wilson was pitched on to his car, causing a blockage of the track.

Hunter-Reay was able to keep Pagenaud at bay on the restart, by the white flag, Ryan Brisoce had moved back into second and chasing after Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay would win the race, his fourth of the year and keep his championship hopes alive heading into Fontana.

Classification

edit

Race results

edit
Pos No. Driver Team Engine Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps Led Points1
1 28   Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 75 1:39:48.5083 10 13 50
2 2   Ryan Briscoe Team Penske Chevrolet 75 1.4391 11 11 40
3 77   Simon Pagenaud (R) Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports Honda 75 3.0253 9 14 35
4 9   Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 75 3.9281 2 0 40
5 8   Rubens Barrichello KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 75 5.0450 15 0 30
6 12   Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 75 5.7467 1 22 31
7 22   Oriol Servià Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet 75 7.5913 16 0 26
8 98   Alex Tagliani Team Barracuda – BHA Honda 75 7.7701 13 1 24
9 5   E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 75 8.8651 22 0 22
10 3   Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 75 9.0843 14 0 20
11 38   Graham Rahal Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 75 10.2963 21 0 19
12 4   J. R. Hildebrand Panther Racing Chevrolet 75 17.1591 23 0 18
13 10   Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 74 1 lap 4 0 17
14 26   Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 74 1 lap 18 0 16
15 27   James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 73 2 laps 5 2 15
16 14   Mike Conway A. J. Foyt Enterprises Honda 73 2 laps 12 0 14
17 18   Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Racing Honda 72 3 laps 7 0 13
18 83   Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 65 Mechanical 17 0 12
19 67   Bruno Junqueira Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda 64 Contact 20 0 12
20 11   Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 52 Contact 6 0 12
21 15   Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 50 Mechanical 24 12 12
22 78   Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing Lotus 38 Contact 25 0 12
23 7   Sébastien Bourdais Dragon Racing Chevrolet 32 Mechanical 3 32 12
24 19   James Jakes Dale Coyne Racing Honda 31 Contact 19 0 12
25 20   Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 7 Contact 8 0 10
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE
[2]
Notes

1 Points include 1 point for pole position and 2 points for most laps led.

Standings after the race

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Weather information for the 2012 Grand Prix of Baltimore". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  2. ^ "Official Box Score" (PDF). indycar.com. Indycar. 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
edit
Previous race:
2012 GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
IndyCar Series
2012 season
Next race:
2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships
Previous race:
2011 Baltimore Grand Prix
Grand Prix of Baltimore Next race:
2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore