Baltimore: Race results
Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports' Simon Pagenaud looked strong throughout the afternoon in the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT, but it took a large dose of luck just to survive the 75 action-packed laps on the 2.04-mile, 12-turn downtown street course to see him finally claim the chequered flag for the second time in 2013.
Early on the race had looked like it would be a pitched battle between Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Penske's Will Power, one that it seemed Power was on course to win. However the matter was decided by a collision between the pair on lap 52 where Power barged Dixon into the wall during a restart, putting the #9 out of the race on the spot and leaving Power running last on the track eight laps down by the finish.
With a high attrition rate also claiming Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal, and with Helio Castroneves hit by a drive-thru penalty for running into a Penske crew member during a pit stop, there was an opportunity for others to shine through the chaotic events of the afternoon which included three cautions sparked when the track became blocked by a pile-up of cars at turn 1 and the hairpin.
Sarah Fisher Hartman's Josef Newgarden had been strong throughout the weekend and duly managed to finish on the podium in second by holding off Dragon Racing's Sebastien Bourdais after the Frenchman narrowly survived contact with Pagenaud while battling for the lead in the closing laps. Justin Wilson survived another up-and-down race for Dale Coyne in fourth, just holing off a flying Simona de Silvestro to the line on what was the Swiss driver's 25th birthday.
Despite his penalty, Castroneves made it to the finish in the top ten albeit nearly half a lap down, and thereby pulled away in the championship battle from the sidelined Dixon, while Pagenaud's win puts him into third in the standings ahead of Marco Andretti.
Race results
1. #77 Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Honda 75 laps 2hrs 16mins 32.3443secs after 75 laps
2. #67 Josef Newgarden SFHR Honda + 4.1592s
3. #7 Sebastien Bourdais Dragon Chevrolet + 7.9588s
4. #19 Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Honda + 10.7598s
5. #78 Simona de Silvestro KV Racing Chevrolet + 11.6017s
6. #83 Charlie Kimball Ganassi Honda + 21.416s
7. #27 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Chevrolet + 22.8422s
8. #6 Sebastian Saavedra Dragon Chevrolet + 25.5377s
9. #3 Helio Castroneves Penske Chevrolet + 29.3117s
10. #25 Marco Andretti Andretti Chevrolet + 40.5499s
11. #55 Tristan Vautier Schmidt Honda + 1 laps
12. #4 Oriol Servi? Panther Chevrolet + 1 laps
13. #5 EJ Viso Andretti-HVM Chevrolet + 1 laps
14. #20 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Chevrolet + 1 laps
15. #11 Tony Kanaan KV Racing Chevrolet + 2 laps Contact
16. #18 Stefan Wilson Dale Coyne Honda + 3 laps
17. #15 Graham Rahal RLL Honda + 7 laps Contact
18. #12 Will Power Penske Chevrolet + 8 laps
Retirements#9 Scott Dixon Ganassi Honda + 23 laps Contact#1 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Chevrolet + 33 laps Mechanical#10 Dario Franchitti Ganassi Honda + 53 laps Mechanical#98 Luca Filippi BHA Honda + 63 laps Mechanical#16 James Jakes RLL Honda + 70 laps Mechanical#14 Takuma Sato AJ Foyt Honda + 71 laps Mechanical
Fastest Lap#7 Sebastien Bourdais Dragon Chevrolet 1:19.9419s 91.867mph on lap 8
Championship standings
1. Helio Castroneves 501pts
2. Scott Dixon 452pts
3. Simon Pagenaud 431pts
4. Marco Andretti 430pts
5. Ryan Hunter-Reay 427pts
6. Justin Wilson 393pts
7. Dario Franchitti 388pts
8. James Hinchcliffe 376pts
9. Will Power 371pts
10. Charlie Kimball 363pts
11. Tony Kanaan 346pts
12. Ernesto Viso 304pts
13. S?bastien Bourdais 297pts
14. Josef Newgarden 291pts
15. Takuma Sato 278pts
16. Simona de Silvestro 278pts
17. Ed Carpenter 277pts
18. Graham Rahal 266pts
19. James Jakes 244pts
20. Tristan Vautier 230pts
21. Sebastian Saavedra 196pts
22. Oriol Servia 185pts
23. Alex Tagliani 163pts
24. Mike Conway 149pts
25. Ryan Briscoe 100pts
26. J.R. Hildebrand 93pts
27. Ana Beatriz 72pts
28. Carlos Mu?oz 67pts
29. A.J. Allmendinger 65pts
30. Pippa Mann 29pts
31. James Davison 27pts
32. Luca Filippi 22pts
33. Stefan Wilson 14pts
34. Conor Daly 11pts
35. Townsend Bell 10pts
36. Buddy Lazier 8pts
36. Lucas Luhr 8pts
36. Katherine Legge 8pts
