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The Month of May is here, arguably the best month of all for motorsport fans around the world. With both Indianapolis and Monaco hosting two major events this year, we are all expected to be treated to some fantastic racing. Whilst Stateside traditionally May has been reserved solely for the prestigious Indianapolis 500, as of last year, the cars have run on the road course as well as the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, albeit in a different format to the F1 and Moto GP races.
The circuit differs in three notable places to the old F1 track. There is now a fast left-right chicane before the back straightaway, which proved to be quite tricky to get right last year, but helped provide some overtaking. The double hairpin has been removed in place of two notably quicker corners. The final change is the notorious ‘turn 13’ has been replaced by a section consisting of a tight 90-degree right hander, a tight 90-degree left hander followed by a long right-hander onto the pit straight. Here is an onboard with Graham Rahal. [LINK]
As the event has been held just once, there has only been one winner. That winner is present in the form of Simon Pagenaud. Jack Hawksworth who starred here last year will also be present. However, in ninth and 17th respectively, they find themselves far lower down the standings than they would have liked.
However, despite having a terrible time at Barber, Juan Pablo Montoya still has a three-point lead over Helio Castroneves. Scott Dixon is 13 behind with the latest winner Josef Newgarden a strong fourth 17 behind. Will Power is fifth 24 behind his team mate with James Hinchcliffe and Tony Kanaan level, 26 behind Montoya.
Finally, we have some driver changes for this race with Justin Wilson making a return to the series with Andretti Autosport in place of Simona de Silvestro. Also rejoining the series is J.R. Hildebrand at CFH Racing and last year’s pole winner Sebastian Saavedra back in the number 8.
