| Race details | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st round of the2011 IndyCar Series season | |||||
 | |||||
| Date | March 27, 2011 | ||||
| Official name | Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg | ||||
| Location | Streets of St. Petersburg | ||||
| Course | Temporary street circuit 1.800 mi / 2.897 km | ||||
| Distance | 100 laps 180.000 mi / 289.682 km | ||||
| Weather | 85 °F (29 °C), scattered clouds | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver |  Will Power (Team Penske) | ||||
| Time | 1:01.9625 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske) | ||||
| Time | 1:03.8683 (on lap 74 of 100) | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First |  Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing) | ||||
| Second | Will Power (Team Penske) | ||||
| Third | Tony Kanaan (KV Racing Technology –Lotus) | ||||
| Chronology | |||||
| |||||
The2011Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the first race of the2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The race took place on March 27, on the 1.800-mile (2.897 km) temporary street circuit inSt. Petersburg,Florida, and was telecast byABC in theUnited States.
Dario Franchitti began the season as defending champion of theIndyCar Series, after a season-long battle withWill Power in2010. It was Franchitti's second championship in the past three seasons. (The year he did not win,2008, he was racing inNASCAR.) Other contenders for the 2011 championship include Franchitti'sChip Ganassi Racing teammates,Scott Dixon,Charlie Kimball, andGraham Rahal, thePenske Racing drivers,Ryan Briscoe,Hélio Castroneves, andWill Power, among others.Tony Kanaan leftAndretti Autosport after the 2010 season and was now piloting the #82 entry forKV Racing Technology –Lotus. Briscoe, Castroneves, Power, and Rahal were all previous winners of the St. Petersburg race.
The race marked the IndyCar debut or return for several drivers, including:
The first Indycar race to use double-file starts and restarts began anything but smoothly. On turn 1 of lap 1, five cars were involved in contact as the drivers fought for position. Helio Castroneves made contact withMarco Andretti's car, who ran up the back of Scott Dixon's machine and flipped upside down.Mike Conway, racing for the first time since last year'sIndianapolis 500, was also caught in the pile-up, along with Briscoe. Castroneves, Briscoe, and Dixon would finish the day running, but had no chance for victory.Andretti Autosport took the brunt of the blow, with two of their drivers, Andretti and Conway, being knocked out of the race as a result. On the ensuing restart (lap 5) Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan passed Power to take first and second position respectively.
The yellow flag came out again on lap 7 whenE. J. Viso spun off the track, but without making contact, and green flag racing resumed by lap 10. Only two laps later however, the caution came out again for debris on the racetrack, and Sebastián Saavedra spun and stalled on the ensuing restart, bringing out yet another caution. In total, nine of the first 15 laps were run under yellow, leading many drivers and fans to question the new restart system. Will Power briefly regained the lead on lap 71 when Franchitti pitted, but he had to pit himself two laps later, and Franchitti won comfortably by 6.7 seconds. The main point of interest over the final 10 laps was the battle for 3rd place between the veteran Kanaan and second-year driverSimona de Silvestro. Kanaan was able to hold on and gain a podium place for his new team, KV-Lotus, but it was an impressive run by de Silvestro nonetheless.
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dario Franchitti | 52 |
| 2 | Will Power | 41 |
| 3 | Tony Kanaan | 35 |
| 4 |  Simona de Silvestro | 32 |
| 5 |  Takuma Sato | 30 |
