Round 5: GMR Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. May 13 - 14

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 5: GMR Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. May 13 - 14

This weekend will be the 8th running of the event during the Month of May, though in 2020 the IMS Grand Prix circuit held the double-header IndyCar Harvest Grand Prix, on October 2nd and 3rd because of race cancellations to the original calendar, due to the Covid pandemic. Last year the IMS Grand Prix circuit also hosted an additional round, the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix on August 14th.

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On October 1, 2013, after a feasibility test in September, it was announced that an IndyCar race for 2014 would be held on the GP Circuit, either as a "doubleheader" event in May prior to the Indy 500, or as a stand-alone race in the fall. Up until the announcement IndyCar hadn't raced on the GP Circuit, though Indy Lights had four times.

The inaugural race was held on May 10, 2014 and was won by Simon Pagenaud, driving a Dallara DW12- Honda HI14RTT for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. The race featured a standing start, which was not without incident, when Pole sitter Sebastián Saavedra stalled as the lights went out and his car was hit by Carlos Munoz's and Mikhail Aleshin's cars, showering the track with carbon-fibre and forcing a restart.

It was decided that from 2015 onwards the race would have a conventional rolling start. Despite that, the start of each race has been barely without incident, the exceptions being 2017 and of course 2020, when the race was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The start of last year's race was no exception, as Simon Pagenaud caught the rear of Connor Daley's car in Turn 1, sending Daley into the side of Graham Rahal's car, with a number of drivers taking to the grass in order to avoid a potential pile up and subsequently dropping down the field. Last year's race also saw ex-F1 driver, Frenchman Romain Grosjean, claim his first Pole in his Rookie season and race winner Rinus VeeKay become the fifth different race winner of the season thus far.

Some trivia:
Driver with the most wins:
Simon Pagenaud, 2014, 2016, 2019
Will Power, 2015, 2017, 2018.

Team with the most wins:
Team Penske, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019


Track layout
The layout is a modified version of the one that was used for the F1 United States Grand Prix, which was held from 2000 - 2007 and by Moto GP from 2008 to 2015. The race is run clockwise, the opposite direction to the Indianapolis 500.

F1 Course, 2000-2007


IndyCar Grand Prix Course


Length:
2.439 Miles (3.925 Km)

Turns: 14

Lap record:
Will Power, May 12, 2017. 1:07.704, 129.69 mph (208.44 km/h).
Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6.
Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last Year's Race:
https://www.indycar.com/news/2021/05/05-15-gmrgp-report

Pole:
Romain Grosjean, 1:09.4396, 126.447 mph (203.496 km/h)
Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing[,
Dallara IR18- Honda HIR21 Indy V-6

Winner:
Rinus van Kalmthout AKA Rinus VeeKay,
Ed Carpenter Racing,
Dallara IR18-- Chevy V6 Indy

Laps: 85
Distance: 207.315 Miles / 333.6411514 km
Race Time: 1:47:08.5773
Average Speed: 116.096 Mph (186.838 Km/h)
Fastest Lap: Rinus van Kalmthout, Ed Carpenter Racing. Lap 14, 70.8767 sec. 123.883 mph, (199.370 km/h)

Caution periods: 1
Laps: 1 - 3

Practice and Qualifications:
Practice 1- Friday, May 13. 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM ET

Practice 2 - Friday, May 13. 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM ET

Qualifications - Friday, May. 13. 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM ET

Warm up - Saturday, May 14. 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM ET

Race broadcast:
NBC, 14 May, 3:00pm ET, 7:00pm UTC, 8:00pm BST
Sky Sports F1, 8:00pm BST