Munoz and Bourdais winners of IndyCar races in Detroit
Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais (KVSH Racing) has won Race 2 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit on Sunday. Colombian driver Carlos Munoz (Andretti Autosport) managed to take home the title of Race 1, the previous day.
In a crazy finish of Sunday’s race, with a few caution periods in the last ten laps, Bourdais held off Takuma Sato (AJ Foyt) over the final three laps and collected his 33rd Indy car victory.
The race was red-flagged on Lap 65 (of the scheduled 70) because of cleaning debris from an incident involving Team Penske teammates Will Power and Helio Castroneves. After that, it was a timed race with 2 minutes and 50 seconds left to go.
The four-time Champ, who started ninth, finished 1.7644 seconds ahead of Sato after completing 68 laps. Bourdais is the seventh different winner in eight races this season.
Graham Rahal (RLL Racing) finished third for his third podium in the past five races. Tristan Vautier gave Dale Coyne Racing its best finish this season in fourth after starting 23rd and Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport), runner-up in Race 1 on May 30, finished fifth. Conor Daly (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports), substituting for the injured James Hinchcliffe, led 12 laps early and finished sixth.
At the end of race, everybody was low on fuel and some of them didn’t get to finish line, like pole sitter JP Montoya (Team Penske). He led a field-high 35 laps, slipped to 10th on the final lap as he ran out of fuel. The recently-crowned Indianapolis 500 winner still maintained the championship points lead (315-294 over Power) at the halfway point of the Verizon IndyCar Series season.
In Race 1, Carlos Munoz (Andretti Autosport) earned his first Verizon IndyCar Series victory, while on pit lane at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park. Severe weather prompted a red flag at 47 of 70 scheduled laps and the race was called after a 20-minute wait.
Munoz, who started 20th, picked up the lead on Lap 40 when Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti pitted for fuel and Firestone rain tyres in anticipation of rain returning to the area. The 23 entries started the race on rain tyres. Munoz remained out for an additional two laps, building a 26-second lead on Andretti, before also pitting for rain tyres.
Andretti led a field-high 23 laps and secured second place. The third placed Simon Pagenaud picked up his first podium finish as a Team Penske driver. Reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion and pole sitter Will Power placed fourth and Scott Dixon was fifth.
