2010 Honda Indy Edmonton


The 2010 Honda Indy Edmonton was an IndyCar motor race held on July 25, 2010 at the Edmonton City Centre Airport, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was the eleventh round of the 2010 IndyCar Series season, the third annual edition of the Edmonton Indy in the IndyCar Series, and the sixth anniversary running of the race. The 95-lap race was won by Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon, who started from the third position. Will Power finished second for Team Penske and Dixon's teammate Dario Franchitti came in third.
Power, the defending champion of the Honda Indy Edmonton, won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying. In the race, Power maintained the first position throughout most of the event but was passed by teammate Hélio Castroneves with eighteen laps remaining. On the race's final restart on lap 92, Power attempted to reclaim the lead from Castroneves but the latter defended his position and was issued with a drive-through penalty. He chose not to take it and was demoted to tenth and the victory was awarded to Dixon.
There were four cautions and four lead changes among three different drivers during the race. It was Dixon's second win of the season, and the twenty-third of his career. The result meant Power extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 50 points over Franchitti, and 71 in front of Dixon, with six races of the season remaining.

Background

The Honda Indy Edmonton was confirmed as a part of the Indy Racing League's 2010 schedule for the IndyCar Series in December 2009 after Edmonton City Council voted to keep the race on the calendar despite incurring losses of $9.2 million over the previous two seasons. It was the third consecutive year the race was held in the series, and the sixth Edmonton Indy, counting the period from 2005 to 2007 when it was a Champ Car World Series event. It was the second consecutive round held in Canada, following the Honda Indy Toronto the previous week. Tire supplier Firestone brought three types to tire to the race: two dry compounds and grooved rain tires.
Prior to the race, Team Penske driver Will Power was the points leader with 377 points, with his primary championship rival Dario Franchitti 42 behind in second and Scott Dixon third. Ryan Briscoe was fourth on 292 points, and Ryan Hunter-Reay was sixth points adrift in fifth position. Having dominated the 2009 Indy Edmonton, Power said he felt he could repeat the success and believed it would be "very competitive" in the qualifying session and "very tough" in the race. With seven races remaining in the season after the race, Franchitti said he wanted to return to championship contention after he retired with a gearbox problem in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 and hoped for a good performance in Edmonton.

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions were held on the Friday before the race: each lasted for an hour. A third session, also an hour long, took place on the Saturday morning prior to qualifying. Franchitti was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 1 minute and 3.0885 seconds; Dixon was second and Power third. Hélio Castroneves was fourth-fastest, ahead of Justin Wilson and Paul Tracy. Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, E. J. Viso and Takuma Sato rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. The session was stopped twice: firstly for Milka Duno who lost control of her car and went into the turn ten tire barrier damaging her front wing, and then Bertrand Baguette spun after hitting a chicane kerb which caused to him to drive through an advertising billboard. In the second practice session, Power set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1 minute and 1.6689 seconds, with his teammates Briscoe in second and Castroneves third. Franchitti recorded the fourth-quickest time; Sato was fifth and Dixon sixth. Wilson, Viso, Tracy and Tony Kanaan followed in the top ten. Three caution flags came out; Baugette crashed, Duno stalled after she spun and Tomas Scheckter slid into a tire barrier.
In the final practice session, Castroneves recorded the fastest time with a lap of 1 minute and 1.6642 seconds, ahead of his Team Penske teammates Power and Briscoe. Hideki Mutoh recorded the fourth-fastest time; Dixon was fifth and Tracy sixth. Wilson was seventh-fastest, Kannan eighth, Marco Andretti ninth and Sato completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Several drivers had high-speed spins without damaging their cars which triggered the caution flags to be displayed. A stoppage was caused when Tracy and Alex Tagilani both spun in the first turn; Tracy narrowly avoided a collision with Baguette who was exiting the pit lane.
Qualifying followed the usual road and street course system, with the field being split into two groups. All cars were split into two groups of twelve, with the fastest six from each group going through to the "Top 12" session. In this session, the fastest six runners progressed to the "Firestone Fast Six". The fastest driver in the final session claimed pole position, with the rest of the runners lining up in session order, regardless of qualifying times.. Duno was prohibited from participating in qualifying because her practice lap times did not meet the required performance standards but was allowed to start the race. In the first group of twelve runners, Power paced the session, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than teammate Briscoe with Castroneves in third place. Other drivers to make it into the second session of qualifying were Franchitti, Wilson and Raphael Matos. The remaining twelve drivers took part in the second group, with Simona de Silvestro recording her fastest lap of the day. Hunter-Reay, Dixon, Viso, Mutoh and Scheckter were the other competitors in the top six, and thus progressed to the second round of qualifying. In the Top 12, Power set the fastest lap time, holding off teammate Castroneves and Dixon. Briscoe, Franchitti and Viso finished between fourth and sixth, and would be the other half of the drivers that progressed to the Fast Six. Power clinched his sixth pole position of the season with a time of 1 minute and 00.7126 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by teammate Castroneves who had the pole position until Power's lap. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Dixon and Franchitti were third and fourth, and Briscoe took fifth ahead of Viso.

Qualifying classification

Warm-up

The drivers took to the track at 10:00 AM for a 30-minute warm-up session. Power maintained his good performance, setting a time of 1 minute and 1.8397 seconds. Dixon was the second-fastest driver. Power's Team Penske teammates Castroneves and Briscoe rounded out the top four.

Race

The race began at 4:00 p.m. local time, and was televised live in the United States on Versus. Weather conditions at the start of the race were sunny and mild with an air temperature from and a track temperature between. Power maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first turn. Duno spun off the track at the start but no caution was needed. De Silvestro passed Viso for sixth place on the same lap. At the end of the first lap, Power led Castroneves, with Dixon, Franchitti, Briscoe, de Silvestro, Viso, Hunter-Reay, Wilson and Matos rounding out the top ten. The top five drivers began to pull away from the rest of the field. On lap two, Tracy made contact with the rear of Matos' car in turn two, sending Matos pirouetting into the infield grass and the latter drove cautiously to the pit lane with a flat left-rear tire. Scheckter's front wing was damaged on lap 10 for which he made a pit stop for a replacement nose cone. After starting fifteenth, Tracy drove aggressively and moved up to tenth position by the 20th lap.
was demoted for blocking Will Power.
Briscoe passed the Chip Ganassi Racing drivers to move into second after they were baulked by slower cars on lap 29. Green-flag pit stops began four laps later. Wilson spun under braking at the end of the backstretch at turn ten on the 36th lap after a right-rear shock absorber failure and drove slowly to his pit box to repair damage to his vehicle. Danica Patrick attempted to pass Baugette around the inside on lap 39, but lost control of her car and ran wide into the infield grass and rejoined the track in 17th without damaging her suspension. Andretti's front wing came apart on lap 46 while baulking four cars, and Scheckter ran wide as the four cars passed Andretti. The first full course caution of the event was necessitated on the following lap when Alex Lloyd spun into the grass and stalled his engine. Andretti made a pit stop for a replacement front wing during the caution. Racing resumed at the start of lap 51 with Power leading Castroneves, Briscoe and Dixon. Shortly afterward, de Silvestro was hit from behind by Viso who overheated his brakes, and went into the turn one tyre barrier, causing the second caution. Viso avoided contact with his teammate Tracy on the same lap.
Viso was issued a drive-through penalty and rejoined in tenth position. The race resumed on lap 54 with Power retaining his lead. The race's third caution was issued shortly after the restart when Kanaan made light contact with the side of Tagilani who spun. Mario Romancini was blinded by smoke that came from the incident and was hit by the recovering Tagilani. Both cars sustained heavy damage and retired; Kanaan was able to continue without any apparent damage. Power led the field at the lap-58 restart. Briscoe fell behind the two Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, while Tracy moved past Hunter-Reay for sixth place. The second round of green-flag pit stops started on the 63rd lap; Tracy and Hunter-Reay made their pit stops over the next five laps in the hope a caution flag would be shown that would allow the pair to lead the race. After the pit stops, Power remained in the first position, and had the Alternate tires fitted on his car. He was ahead of Castroneves and Dixon.
On the 77th lap, Power and teammate Castroneves encountered slower cars, and the latter took advantage of the situation which allowed him to overtake Power for the lead. Castroneves began to pull away from Power. Ten laps later, de Silvestro's car ran out of fuel and pulled over to the side of the track onto the infield grass to retire from the race which prompted the fourth caution. Racing resumed when the pace car drove into the pit lane at the start of lap 92. Power went onto the outside lane at the entrance of the first turn, and Castroneves drove left to widen his arc into Turn 1. However, race control interpreted this as a blocking manoeuvre. Castroneves accelerated out of the corner's exit which caused Power to run wide. Dixon used the situation to pass Power on his right and take second place. The move was immediately reviewed by the IndyCar chief steward and competition president Brian Barnhart, which led to Castroneves being shown a black-flag a minute later as he was deemed as having blocked Power. Castroneves was informed that he was issued with a drive-through penalty, but opted to remain on the track for the final two laps and crossed the start-finish line first on the road.
Because Castroneves had not taken his penalty, the victory was awarded to Dixon, with Power in second and Franchitti third. Briscoe was fourth, and Hunter-Reay held off Tracy to claim fifth. Moraes, Viso and Sato finished in positions seven to nine, while Castroneves was demoted to tenth. There were four cautions and four lead changes among three different drivers during the race. It was Dixon's second win of the season, and the twenty-third of his career.

Post-race

Castroneves was upset about the penalty and leapt from his car and yelled in anger at the flagman and grabbed the Head of Security Charles Burns as he sought an answer. He argued that he did not change his line: "I actually gave him room outside. When you go side by side like that with your teammate and the guy has just swept... literally, literally just takes it away from you... it's just absurd." Castroneves was fined $60,000 by the IRL for "unsportsmanlike conduct" and was placed on probation for the rest of the season. It was later revealed by IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard that the series considered suspending Castroneves but chose not to because of his popularity with its fanbase. Castroneves later apologized for his actions but still did not agree with the penalty. Comparisons were made between Castroneves' block and his manoeuvre against Wilson in the 2008 Detroit Indy Grand Prix. Gordon Kirby of Motor Sport Magazine opined that Castroneves' move was fair and sportsmanlike and noted that several fans perceived it as "good, hard racing".
Dixon said of his victory: "It's not a way you want to win for sure. When I win, I want to win being faster or putting a good pass on someone. But the way our season is going, I'll be taking anything at the moment." Second-place finisher Power said it was still a good finish for him in terms of scoring points. Tony Cotman, the circuit's design consultant, announced in February 2011 that the track would be improved and lengthened for that year. He stated that the layout of the track be moved to.the Eastern runway of the City Centre Airport in an attempt to create more excitement. The result of the alterations would be an additional of track, creating a circuit. With his second-place finish, Power extended his points lead in the standings to 50 over Franchitti and 71 ahead of Dixon. Briscoe and Hunter-Reay retained fourth and fifth positions.

Race classification

Standings after the race