2016 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

The 2016 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the first round of the 2016 IndyCar Series. The race was held on March 13, 2016 in St. Petersburg, Florida on the city's temporary street circuit. Team Penske driver Will Power qualified on pole for the race, but was diagnosed with a concussion shortly after the conclusion of the session and was forced to miss the race. Oriol Servià filled in place of Power.^[1] Second place qualifier Simon Pagenaud inherited the pole position.

2016 St. Petersburg

Race details
1st round of the 2016 IndyCar Series season
Date	March 13, 2016
Official name	Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Location	Streets of St. Petersburg
Course	Temporary street circuit 1.800 mi / 2.897 km
Distance	110 laps 198.000 mi / 318.670 km
Pole position
Driver	Will Power (Team Penske)
Time	1:00.2450
Fastest lap
Driver	Josef Newgarden (Ed Carpenter Racing)
Time	1:02.2307 (on lap 42 of 110)
Podium
First	Juan Pablo Montoya (Team Penske)
Second	Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske)
Third	Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport)
Chronology
Previous Next 2015 2017

Simon Pagenaud led the opening 48 laps of the race before being passed by his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya would lead 44 laps en route to his second win in a row at St. Petersburg and most recent IndyCar victory to date. Rookie driver Conor Daly also led 15 laps during the race due to pit strategy, but was shuffled outside the top 10 by the end of the race. Alexander Rossi was the highest finishing rookie in the race, coming across the line in 12th position. The race tied the record for fewest caution flags in a race at St. Petersburg with only two coming out over the whole of the race. The first came on lap 46 when Luca Filippi and Marco Andretti made contact in the first turn. The second came on the restart from the prior caution when Carlos Muñoz made contact with Graham Rahal in turn four, creating a logjam that completely blocked the race course.^[2]

After the race, Will Power was reevaluated and deemed not to have a concussion, but instead to be suffering from a lingering ear infection.^[3] Power would be cleared to race for the following round at Phoenix International Raceway.

Report

Key	Meaning
R	Rookie
W	Past winner

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Name	Grp.	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
1	12	Will Power W	2	1:00.5678	1:00.0658	1:00.2450
2	22	Simon Pagenaud	2	1:00.6503	1:00.3805	1:00.4421
3	3	Hélio Castroneves W	2	1:00.7320	1:00.5168	1:00.4995
4	2	Juan Pablo Montoya W	2	1:00.7060	1:00.4431	1:00.5312
5	9	Scott Dixon	1	1:00.8921	1:00.2318	1:00.5395
6	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	2	1:00.9830	1:00.5530	1:00.8803
7	15	Graham Rahal W	1	1:00.9578	1:00.5893
8	11	Sébastien Bourdais	1	1:01.1450	1:00.6711
9	5	James Hinchcliffe W	1	1:00.9973	1:00.6724
10	41	Jack Hawksworth	1	1:01.1322	1:00.7188
11	14	Takuma Sato	2	1:00.7920	1:00.9745
12	21	Josef Newgarden	1	1:01.0836	1:01.0571
13	26	Carlos Muñoz	1	1:01.1856
14	83	Charlie Kimball	2	1:01.0433
15	27	Marco Andretti	1	1:01.2417
16	19	Luca Filippi	2	1:01.1699
17	8	Max Chilton R	1	1:01.5372
18	7	Mikhail Aleshin	2	1:01.2934
19	98	Alexander Rossi R	1	1:01.5794
20	10	Tony Kanaan	2	1:01.3414
21	18	Conor Daly R	1	1:01.9385
22	16	Spencer Pigot R	2	1:01.3881
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Source for Individual Rounds:^[4]

Race Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Pit Stops	Grid	Laps Led	Pts.1
1	2	Juan Pablo Montoya W	Team Penske	Chevrolet	110	2:13:28.4650	3	3	44	51
2	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	110	+2.3306	3	1	48	43
3	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	110	+8.8764	3	5	3	36
4	3	Hélio Castroneves W	Team Penske	Chevrolet	110	+9.3237	3	2		32
5	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	110	+9.7167	5	17		30
6	14	Takuma Sato	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	110	+26.0373	5	10		28
7	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	110	+40.7056	4	4		26
8	26	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport	Honda	110	+55.9459	5	12		24
9	10	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	110	+59.1204	4	19		22
10	83	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	109	Contact	4	13		20
11	41	Jack Hawksworth	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	109	+1 Lap	7	9		19
12	98	Alexander Rossi R	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	109	+1 Lap	4	18		18
13	18	Conor Daly R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	109	+1 Lap	4	20	15	18
14	16	Spencer Pigot R	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	109	+1 Lap	5	21		16
15	27	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	109	+1 Lap	5	14		15
16	15	Graham Rahal W	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	109	+1 Lap	5	6		14
17	8	Max Chilton R	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	109	+1 Lap	4	16		13
18	12	Oriol Servià	Team Penske	Chevrolet	109	+1 Lap	4	22		12
19	5	James Hinchcliffe W	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	109	+1 Lap	7	8		11
20	19	Luca Filippi	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	108	+2 Laps	6	15		10
21	11	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Chevrolet	87	Contact	4	7		9
22	21	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	47	Electrical	8	11		8
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Notes

¹ Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.

Source for time gaps:^[5]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Juan Pablo Montoya 51 2 Simon Pagenaud 43 3 Ryan Hunter-Reay 36 4 Hélio Castroneves 32 5 Mikhail Aleshin 30

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.