James Hinchcliffe wins for the first time since his near-fatal crash
James Hinchcliffe won Sunday’s running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in California ahead of Sebastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden.
This was Hinchcliffe’s first win since his near-fatal crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvtAq7K0uYo
Helio Castroneves led the field to the green flag for the first of 85 laps but did not lead into the first turn. The Team Penske driver got a poor start and so it was Scott Dixon who went on to head the field.
The first Full Course Yellow of the race flew before the first lap had even completed when Will Power and Charlie Kimball tangled in Turn 4. Power pitted for repairs while Kimball was out.
Dixon led the field back to green on Lap 5 and committed to the three-stop strategy, pitting early on. Several drivers opted to stay out until around Lap 30 and commit to a two-stop strategy, led by Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay. The drivers on the two-stop strategy would have to think about fuel conservation.
Hunter-Reay led Alexander Rossi - who was also on the two-stop strategy - into the pits on Lap 57. James Hinchcliffe - also on a two-stopper - was critically able to make it one lap longer before pitting and he was able to leapfrog Hunter-Reay and Rossi during the round of stops.
Meanwhile for the three-stoppers, Dixon was leap-frogged in the pits by Josef Newgarden.
As soon as the last stops were complete, the second Full Course Yellow of the race flew as Rossi came to a stop on the front straight.
Hinchcliffe led Hunter-Reay, Bourdais, Newgarden and Dixon under the pace car, with Hunter-Reay being the only one in the top five on the harder tires. Hinchcliffe led them back to green with 16 laps to go.
The closing laps weren’t without drama as Mikhail Aleshin got into the back of Tony Kanaan, and the Brazilian had to limp back to the pits with a left-rear puncture.
With six laps to go, the final Full Course Yellow flew when Andretti Autosport driver Hunter-Reay coasted to a halt. His teammates Marco Andretti, Takuma Sato and Rossi had likewise broken down during the race.
This led to a three-lap shootout to the end, but Hinchcliffe was able to get a good restart and hold off Bourdais and Newgarden for the win. Meanwhile, JR Hildebrand broke a bone in his left hand after a last-lap crash with Mikhail Aleshin.
"I've had the best support around me, my friends, my family, and most importantly this race team," said Hinchcliffe as he emerged from the car. "Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, you know, I said on the radio my top three - Indy 500, Toronto and Long Beach - we've got pole at one, a podium at the other and now a win at the third so we've got two more to go, so proud of these boys, proud of Honda, everybody, just what a phenomenal result.
"We had to fight, it didn't come easy, we had a great start, we got a couple of guys at the start, got a couple of guys in that second round of pit stops, huge credit to the crew to get us out fast enough and I'm gutted for Alex and Ryan, that was going to be a good race there at the end."
Hinchcliffe had started the race in fourth. He is the second Canadian to win the IndyCar race at Long Beach.
Unofficial race results:
1. James Hinchcliffe
2. Sebastien Bourdais
3. Josef Newgarden
4. Scott Dixon
5. Simon Pagenaud
6. Ed Jones
7. Carlos Munoz
8. Spencer Pigot
9. Helio Castroneves
10. Graham Rahal
11. JR Hildebrand
12. Mikhail Aleshin
13. Will Power
14. Max Chilton
15. Tony Kanaan
16. Conor Daly
17. Ryan Hunter-Reay - DNF
18. Takuma Sato - DNF
19. Alexander Rossi - DNF
20. Marco Andretti - DNF
21. Charlie Kimball - DNF
