Pagenaud Finishes Third in Wild Baltimore Run
Simon Pagenaud, who has already clinched IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year honors, starred in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Baltimore, jumping from sixth to first on a Lap 35 restart and going on to lead 14 laps en route to a third-place finish, his fourth podium result of the 2012 season.
Pagenaud fell back to third during the final round of pit stops, and was unable to make a final bid for victory when his Schmidt Hamilton Racing Honda Dallara picked up an understeer in the final laps of today’s 75-lap contest, making it impossible for him to mount a successful attack on either race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay or runner-up Ryan Briscoe.
Takuma Sato also make a strong bid for victory, despite starting near the back of the field after a difficult qualifying session on Saturday. Sato led 12 laps while a brief, light rain shower blanketed portions of the 2.04-mile downtown temporary street circuit, and continued to lead on dry weather “slick” tires when many others elected to pit for rain tires. But a lack of fuel pressure caused Sato’s engine to stumble on the same Lap 35 restart that saw Pagenaud snare the lead, and soon ended Sato’s day on Lap 38.
Scott Dixon finished fourth, while Alex Tagliani led one lap today for Barracuda Racing. Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal, Dario Franchitti and Charlie Kimball all ran in the top five for portions of today’s race before being delayed by a wide variety of causes in an incident-filled race. Wilson, along with Mike Conway, lost time in a late-race, multi-car collision; Franchitti came up one lap short in an attempt to stretch his fuel mileage to the checkers; while Kimball ran as high as third before mechanical failure ended his day.
Honda’s popular Fastest Seat in Sports sweepstakes returned in Baltimore, with former Indianapolis 500 champion Arie Luyendyk at the wheel of the two-seat Indy car. He gave Tyler Treiber of Uniontown, Ohio the ride of a lifetime around Mid-Ohio at the head of the 27-car starting field just prior to the start of today’s race.