Juan Montoya Hustles Ill-Handling Car to Repeat Victory in Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Juan Montoya Prepares for Battle (Photo Courtesy of IndyCar)

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – RIS –  Two-time Indy 500 Winner Juan Montoya made it two in a row at St. Pete by winning the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Verizon IndyCar Series race. Starting from the third position the Columbian beat his Verizon Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud by 2.3306 seconds. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and Mikhail Aleshin rounded out the top five.

A fast green-flag pit stop put Montoya ahead of Pagenaud. It was smooth sailing until the last five laps of the race. Montoya said the steering arm on his No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet broke, causing a huge amount of play in the steering wheel.

“The steering arm was broken,” Juan Montoya said. “Like, there is play in my steering wheel. Like play, play, play, completely.” He said it was lagging his steering input.  “Yeah, it was kind of like lag, lag, and then turn. But it was okay.”

There were three Chevrolets and two Hondas in the Top five.

Second fastest qualifier Simon Pagenaud started the race from the pole position after Will Power was replaced by Oriel Servia and had to start from the last position due to the driver change. Power, who won the Verizon P1 Award Saturday, did not race due to illness. At first he was originally reported to have some sort of stomach ailment, then a concussion from the big hit he took during Fridays practice.

Power won Saturday’s Verizon P1 Award. The Australian missed the post qualifying press conference and Sunday morning Warm-up practice session. Later he was reported to have a concussion. Veteran Driver Servia, from Spain, drove the morning session in place of Power. Servia finished 18th.

Defending 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon finished seventh. Dixon took an extra pit stop to have the radiators of his overheating No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet cleaned out.

James Hinchcliffe, who was injured in a horrendous crash at the 2015 Indianapolis 500 and hadn’t raced since, drove his No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda to 19th place finish. He started ninth but went a lap down after he suffered a flat tire in a race incident on the first lap and had to pit.

A mid-race incident involving eight race cars got tempers flaring. Carlos Munoz was penalized for unnecessary contact after he collided with Graham Rahal. That set off a chain reaction in the middle of turn 4.

This was Montoya’s 15th Indy car win, including the 2000 and 2015 Indy 500s.

The Verizon IndyCar Series next race will take place at night on April 2 at Phoenix International Raceway and be shown on NBC Sports Network.

Results Sunday of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg street circuit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1.  (3) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 110, Running
2.  (1) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 110, Running
3.  (5) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 110, Running
4.  (2) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 110, Running
5.  (17) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 110, Running
6.  (10) Takuma Sato, Honda, 110, Running
7.  (4) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 110, Running
8.  (12) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 110, Running
9.  (19) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 110, Running
10.  (13) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 109, Contact
11.  (9) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 109, Running
12.  (18) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 109, Running
13.  (20) Conor Daly, Honda, 109, Running
14.  (21) Spencer Pigot, Honda, 109, Running
15.  (14) Marco Andretti, Honda, 109, Running
16.  (6) Graham Rahal, Honda, 109, Running
17.  (16) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 109, Running
18.  (22) Oriol Servia, Chevrolet, 109, Running
19.  (8) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 109, Running
20.  (15) Luca Filippi, Honda, 108, Running
21.  (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 87, Contact
22.  (11) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 47, Electrical                              

Race Statistics
Winner's average speed:   89.006 mph
Time of Race: 02:13:28.4650
Margin of victory: 2.3306 seconds
Cautions:  2 for 16 laps
Lead changes: 4 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Pagenaud 1 - 48
Daly 49 - 63
Montoya 64 - 81
Hunter-Reay 82-84
Montoya 85 - 110

Verizon IndyCar Series Point Standings: Montoya 51, Pagenaud 43, Hunter-Reay 36, Castroneves 32, Aleshin 30, Sato 28, Dixon 26, Munoz 24, Kanaan 22, Kimball 20.