|
Dario Franchitti won the inaugural Molson Indy Montreal at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Round 13 of the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series.
Driving the KOOL Honda/Lola, Franchitti scored his second victory of the season and moved into the second in the point standings. Franchitti, who also won at Vancouver, crossed the finish line 2.588 seconds ahead of points leader Cristiano da Matta in the Havoline Toyota/Lola
Tony Kanaan finished third in the Pioneer/WorldCom Honda/Lola, Paul Tracy was fourth in the KOOL Honda/Lola and Jimmy Vasser placed fifth in the Shell Ford-Cosworth/Lola.
For all practical purposes, the key to the race turned out to be the decision to bring da Matta into the pits on Lap 10 during a caution period for the stalled car of rookie Mario Dominguez. That gave Franchitti his first lead of the day and da Matta proved to be the only member of the lead pack to pit at this time. The result was that the Brazilian was forced to make an extra stop.
Da Matta got the lead back when Franchitti pitted on Lap 21, the designated pit window.
From that point on, the lead would change each time da Matta or Franchitti pitted. Da Matta made his fourth and final stop on Lap 69, handing the lead over to Franchitti, who only needed to stop three times.
Despite a late-race caution for Adrian Fernandez's accident, da Matta was unable to draw close enough to make a pass attempt for the lead. When the race restarted on Lap 74, Franchitti and da Matta were separated by the lapped car of Shinji Nakano. Although Nakano did not appear to block da Matta, he was ultimately ordered out of the way to allow da Matta a clear shot at the race leader.
At that point on, however, Franchitti was beginning to pull away and he built a 3.16-second lead heading into the final lap.
Rounding out the top 10 were Michel Jourdain Jr. in the Gigante Ford-Cosworth/Lola, Christian Fittipaldi in the Lilly Toyota/Lola, Michael Andretti in the Motorola Honda/Lola, Nakano in the Alpine/ Mitsuba Honda/Lola and Scott Dixon in the Target Toyota/Lola.
The point standings changed somewhat thanks to the retirements of co-second-place occupants Patrick Carpentier and Bruno Junqueira. Both drivers retired with mechanical problems and did not score points. Da Matta now leads Franchitti by a 161-106 margin while Carpentier and Junqueira remain tied for third with 101 points. Fittipaldi and Jourdain are tied for fifth with 88 points each and Jourdain continued his amazing by scoring in his 13th straight race.
CART.COM
|