IRL: Race result - Honda Indy Grand Prix.

[Rory Phoulorie]

Complete unofficial results from the Honda Indy Grand Prix of St Petersburg on the streets of St Petersburg.

1. Helio Castroneves BRA Marlboro Team Penske Dallara-Honda 100 laps
2. Scott Dixon NZ Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
3. Tony Kanaan BRA Andretti-Green Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
4. Marco Andretti USA Andretti-Green Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
5. Dario Franchitti GB Andretti-Green Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
6. Tomas Scheckter RSA Vision Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
7. Sam Hornish Jr USA Marlboro Team Penske Dallara-Honda 100 laps
8. Danica Patrick USA Andretti-Green Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
9. Dan Wheldon GB Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
10. Buddy Rice USA Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
11. Scott Sharp USA Rahal Letterman Racing Dallara-Honda 100 laps
12. Darren Manning GB AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Honda 99 laps
13. AJ Foyt IV USA Vision Racing Dallara-Honda 98 laps
14. Jeff Simmons USA Rahal Letterman Racing Dallara-Honda 97 laps
15. Sarah Fisher USA Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara-Honda 97 laps
16. Vitor Meira BRA Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda 96 laps
17. Kosuke Matsuura JPN Super Aguri Panther Racing Dallara-Honda 83 laps-Running/Accident
18. Ed Carpenter USA Vision Racing Dallara-Honda 45 laps-Accident

http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~12~id~145595.htm

[Rory Phoulorie]

Helio nearly perfect en route to St Pete win.

Marlboro Team Penske's Helio Castroneves led 95 of 100 laps as he successfully defended his 2006 Honda Indy Grand Prix crown on the 1.8-mile St Petersburg street circuit.

From pole position Castroneves was only headed thanks to the pit strategy of others and even went as far as to nudge an out-of-sequence Dan Wheldon out of the way before the green flag waved for the second of five restarts during the course of the race.

Escaping with no penalty, Castroneves only lost the lead for three laps from lap 34 onwards when Andretti-Green Racing's Marco Andretti inherited top spot during a round of green flag pitstops. But while nobody in the 18-car field had the machinery under them to pass Castroneves, Wheldon's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon shadowed the fence-climbing Brazilian all the way home.

After dispatching Andretti for second place during the first green flag run between laps six and 28 Dixon never let Castroneves get more than a couple of seconds ahead and brought the gap down to just six tenths of a second at the chequered flag after a dogged but ultimately fruitless chase.

Tony Kanaan recovered from an embarrassing opening lap collision with his Andretti-Green teammate Dario Franchitti that resulted in Kanaan dropping to the back of the field to complete the podium, but only after star of the show Darren Manning spun away a potential podium with 25 laps to go. Manning had been a revelation in his AJ Foyt Racing entry up to that point but his spin dropped him several laps and he eventually finished 12th.

Marco Andretti overcame his poor start to the season at Homestead with a confident fourth place finish while Franchitti had to fight back from his collision with Kanaan and a subsequent drive through penalty for breaking the pit road speed limit to take fifth.

Tomas Scheckter enjoyed a trouble free run to sixth for Vision Racing, beating Sam Hornish Jr, Danica Patrick, a somewhat out of sorts Wheldon and Buddy Rice, who rounded out the top ten.

Rahal-Letterman Racing had another forgetful afternoon with Scott Sharp eleventh and Jeff Simmons a spin-delayed 14th. AJ Foyt IV survived a collision with his Vision teammate Ed Carpenter to take 13th while Sarah Fisher stayed out of the way and brought her car home safely in 15th.

Vitor Meira and Kosuke Matsuura both crashed but managed to finish the race while an upset Carpenter was the only official non-finisher after his first turn contretemps with his teammate.

After two races in Florida on successive weekends the IRL now has a three-week break before it reconvenes in Japan for its annual blast around the Twin Ring Motegi Speedway.


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