James Hinchcliffe pulled off a cross-over move on Takuma Sato in the final corner to win today’s Sao Paulo Indy 300 and become the first repeat winner of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series championship.
On the last lap, Hinchcliffe attempted to get past Sato on the backstretch but was denied by the Japanese racer. However, when the two came toward the right-hand hairpin at Turn 11, Sato briefly lost the back end of his car and Hinchcliffe then moved to the inside of him to make the pass and nab his second career IndyCar victory.
“There’s no cooler way to win a race than on the last corner on the last lap,” a happy Hinchcliffe told NBC Sports Network’s Kevin Lee. “Hell of a job Taku did to get up there — he was making that race car really wide, and we both had one push-to-pass left coming to that last corner.
“He’d been defending the inside pretty well, almost too well a couple of times. But he just out-broke himself a little bit. I knew he was gonna go deep, and we were able to ‘high-low’ him and get the win.”
Sato had raced Hinchcliffe particularly hard in the final laps, especially when the latter seemed set to pass him going down the nearly one- mile-long backstretch. Race Control actually stepped in to review Sato’s driving, but ultimately decided not to take any action.
Even though he came up one spot short in the end, Sato will be able to take the IZOD IndyCar Series points lead into the Indianapolis 500 by 13 points over Marco Andretti. After the race, he and Hinchcliffe embraced briefly after their frenzied battle.
“Hinch did a great manuever,” Sato told Lee. “…We didn’t think we had a car today that was capable for a win. But what a strong day for the A.J. Foyt Racing team — I’m really happy, the guys did a really nice job.”
As for Andretti, he managed to race to third at the checkered flag, claiming his second podium of the season and continuing his dramatic turnaround on road and street circuits.
“It was just about conserving the Push-to-Pass [boosts] for when it counts,” the American said of his day to Lee. “In the end, I was using them when people weren’t expecting me to use them so I could kind of snooker them. But looking from Practice One, I’m quite pleased with where we ended up today.”
Oriol Servia finished fourth in a great effort for Panther DRR as they now head for what may be the final race of their 2013 campaign at Indianapolis. Josef Newgarden had a shot a victory in the closing stages, but was unable to hang on and faded back to fifth; however, it’s still the Tennessee native’s best career result in the series.
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IZOD IndyCar Series – Sao Paulo Indy 300
Final Results
Order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any)
1. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
2. (12) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
3. (10) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
4. (13) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
5. (25) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
6. (2) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
7. (3) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
8. (8) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
9. (23) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
10. (17) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
11. (1) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
12. (15) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
13. (18) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
14. (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
15. (11) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
16. (21) Tristan Vautier, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
17. (24) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
18. (6) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
19. (20) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 75, Running
20. (9) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 73, Running
21. (4) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 72, Running
22. (19) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 71, Running
23. (14) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 71, Running
24. (22) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 17, Mechanical
25. (16) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 6, Mechanical
Race Statistics: Winners average speed: 88.070 mph; Time of Race: 02:09:34.7383; Margin of victory: 0.3463 of a second; Cautions: 7 for 19 laps; Lead changes: 9 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: Hunter-Reay 1 – 9, Kanaan 10 – 20, Bourdais 21 – 33, Sato 34 – 37, Hunter-Reay 38 – 44, Kanaan 45, Andretti 46 – 52, Hildebrand 53 – 56, Sato 57 – 74, Hinchcliffe 75
Point Standings: Sato 136, Andretti 123, Castroneves 116, Hinchcliffe 112, Dixon 101, Hunter-Reay 94, Wilson 91, Servia 89, de Silvestro 86, Kimball 80.