Helio Castroneves led all 82 laps at Long Beach, holding off Cristiano da Matta by 0.534 seconds in a race that never changed hands.
Helio Castroneves won the 2001 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second round of the CART FedEx Championship Series, from pole position. He led all 82 laps for Team Penske, with Cristiano da Matta second and Gil de Ferran third on 8 April 2001.
The 2001 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was a near-perfect afternoon for Helio Castroneves, who took pole and led every single lap. Cristiano da Matta chased him hard for most of the race but could not find a way past, and the race finished with no lead changes at all. Four cautions shaped the rest of the event.
Where and when was the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach held?
The race was held on 8 April 2001 on a temporary eleven-turn street circuit in Long Beach, California, before an estimated 90,000 spectators. It was the second of 21 scheduled races that season, and the 27th annual running of the event, the 18th under CART sanctioning.
The circuit is 3.167 km (1.968 mi) long, and the scheduled race distance was 82 laps, or 259.709 km (161.376 mi). Conditions changed across the weekend: Friday began cool before warming up, and Saturday brought sporadic rain showers.
A flawless pole-to-flag run kept the lead without a single change of hands.
Who led the championship before Long Beach?
Cristiano da Matta led the Drivers' Championship with 21 points before the race, five ahead of Gil de Ferran in second. Paul Tracy was seven points further back in third, while Michael Andretti had 12 points and Kenny Brack had 11. Da Matta had won the previous round, the Grand Prix of Monterrey.
Da Matta said his team would run a different setup for Long Beach, because the bumpy track surface demanded it. He was looking for a second straight win. Andretti stressed that fuel mileage and rear-tyre grip were vital at Long Beach, and he aimed to finish in the top five to add points.
In the constructors' table, Lola led with 22 points to Reynard's 16, and Toyota led the manufacturers with 21 points, five ahead of Honda. Alex Zanardi, who had won at Long Beach in 1997 and 1998, said he was excited to return to the track, even if he was grouped with slower cars in qualifying.
How did practice unfold?
Three practice sessions were held before the race, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The sessions lasted 120 minutes, 105 minutes and 75 minutes. Friday morning began late, after a vendor's truck knocked over a fire extinguisher and broke a water main at the fourth corner, delaying the first session by 28 minutes.
Alex Tagliani set the early pace on Friday at 1 minute 9.147 seconds, but Tony Kanaan went quicker in the second session at 1 minute 7.759 seconds. Several drivers spun, including da Matta and Adrian Fernandez, who slid into the tyre barriers at turn nine, and Bruno Junqueira, who crashed into the barrier at the eighth corner.
On Saturday morning rain showers dampened the circuit. Jimmy Vasser, de Ferran, Fernandez, Herta and others spun during the third session, and Brack was fastest at 1 minute 20.941 seconds, ahead of Patrick Carpentier, Junqueira, Max Papis and Christian Fittipaldi.
How did qualifying shape the grid?
Castroneves took his fifth career pole with a time of 1 minute 8.556 seconds, on his final timed lap, beating Brack by 0.541 seconds. Kanaan took third, while da Matta and de Ferran lined up fourth and fifth. Franchitti applied too much brake on his last lap and took sixth.
Michel Jourdain Jr. was quickest in the first group and held pole until the final three minutes, when he was knocked to seventh, still the best qualifying effort of his career. Vasser, eighth, had to use a backup car after his practice incident. Andretti, Fittipaldi, Tagliani and Tracy took ninth to twelfth.
Papis had oversteer throughout his session and started 13th, ahead of rookie Nicolas Minassian in 14th. Herta, Takagi, Carpentier, Dixon, Gugelmin and Zanardi completed the next positions. Max Wilson hit a wall at the exit of turn eight and started 21st, while Roberto Moreno started 22nd because of gearbox trouble.
Servia was 24th after a broken ignition coil cost him a strong lap, and the constant red flags held Krumm and Garcia Jr. back to 25th and 27th. Junqueira crashed on his first timed lap and finished qualifying 28th, more than 31 seconds slower than Castroneves.
What happened in the Sunday warm-up?
Most drivers took to the track at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time for a 30-minute warm-up under cold but sunny skies. Fittipaldi set the quickest time at 1 minute 9.993 seconds, just under two tenths quicker than pole sitter Castroneves, with Brack third.
Kanaan was the only driver who stayed in the garage, because his team was repairing an oil leak. Three stoppages interrupted the session. Minassian and Garcia Jr. each stalled their cars, and Fernandez crashed into the inside wall at the tenth turn, damaging his front wing and right-front tyre.
How did the early laps play out?
Castroneves pulled away from Brack at the first corner to hold his pole advantage. Tracy struck the rear of Tagliani's car, puncturing a tyre and forcing a pit stop that cost him a lap. Andretti's engine failed on lap 3, and he became the first retirement of the race.
The first full-course caution came on the tenth lap, when Garcia Jr. slid into the tyre barriers at turn eight. The top 13 drivers stayed out, and Castroneves led at the lap 13 restart. De Ferran passed Kanaan for fourth three laps later, and Brack held off Fittipaldi for second.
Wilson spun into the turn nine barriers on lap 19 and his rear wing came off, but the green flag stayed out and he drove back to the pits. Junqueira hit the back of Zanardi's car, damaging his suspension and cooling system, and Zanardi retired on lap 28.
Did anyone challenge Castroneves in the middle of the race?
Da Matta made several attempts to overtake Castroneves, staying within half a second of him for much of the race. Castroneves had a 0.5-second lead over da Matta at one point, but he kept his line and defended the position each time da Matta looked for a way through.
A second caution came on lap 30 when Mauricio Gugelmin spun Takagi at turn nine. Brack's pit stop went wrong when his engine stalled, and he dropped to the back of the field. Fittipaldi was given a drive-through penalty for speeding under the caution, and Castroneves kept the lead on the restart at lap 32.
Tracy had been moving up the order, and he passed Franchitti at turn one for sixth. Jourdain Jr. received a drive-through penalty for leaving the pits too fast after his stop on lap 50.
What happened in the closing laps?
On lap 55 Carpentier hit the back of Papis's car, which destroyed Papis's rear wing and launched Carpentier into the air over a speed bump in turn five. Dixon spun into the turn nine barriers at the same time, and the third caution came out. All the leaders made their final fuel stops under the yellow.
The race restarted on lap 63 with Castroneves ahead of da Matta and de Ferran. Tracy passed Vasser for fourth at the first corner. A fourth caution came on lap 75, when Takagi spun into the turn one barriers, and the green flag returned on lap 78 for the final four laps.
Castroneves held on for the win, leading the final four laps and all 82 in total. It was his fourth CART win and his first of the season, and it ended Team Penske's wait for a win at Long Beach, which dated back to 1995.
Who finished where at Long Beach?
Castroneves won, with da Matta second and de Ferran third. Tracy took fourth and Vasser fifth, while Franchitti, Kanaan, Minassian, Junqueira, Herta, Moreno and Nakano filled the points positions. Jourdain Jr., Servia, Krumm, Fernandez, Papis, Tagliani and Dixon were the final classified finishers.
| Finish | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Helio Castroneves | Led all 82 laps, fourth CART win and first of 2001 |
| Second | Cristiano da Matta | Finished 0.534 seconds behind after constant pressure |
| Third | Gil de Ferran | Pleased with the car's handling, and saving fuel |
| Fourth | Paul Tracy | Passed Franchitti and Vasser on the way up |
| Fifth | Jimmy Vasser | Used a backup car after practice, finished in the top five |
| Sixth | Dario Franchitti | Qualified sixth after too much brake force on his last lap |
| Seventh | Tony Kanaan | Qualified third and kept the top ten |
| Eighth | Nicolas Minassian | Top rookie qualifier, a points finish |
| Ninth | Bruno Junqueira | Crashed on his first timed lap but recovered to score |
| Tenth | Bryan Herta | Points finish from fifteenth on the grid |
What did the result change in the standings?
Da Matta kept the Drivers' Championship lead with 37 points, while de Ferran was second on 30. Castroneves was three points behind de Ferran, and Tracy was four further back. Castroneves had gone from eighth to third in the standings with the win. Vasser rounded out the top five with 18 points.
In the constructors' table, Lola and Reynard were tied on 18 points. Honda took the manufacturers' lead on 38 points, one more than Toyota, and Ford-Cosworth was third on 14. Phoenix had yet to score with 19 races left in the season.
What did the drivers say after the race?
Castroneves thanked his team for keeping him out front all day, and said that the second stop had been the key moment because it put him ahead of da Matta. Da Matta was happy with second, saying he had nothing left for Castroneves and that Castroneves had deserved the win.
De Ferran said the car had been very good in handling, and that he had mostly been trying to save fuel. Carpentier fractured a bone in his left wrist after the lap-55 collision, underwent surgery, and was still permitted to race at the Firehawk 600 in Texas.
Tracy said he had locked his brakes and hit Tagliani on the first lap, and that the apology was all he could offer. Tagliani did not accept it, and he was frustrated with the contact. Moreno also apologised publicly to Gugelmin, a close friend, after he had looked down to change a setting on the dashboard and could not stop in time.
Gugelmin was annoyed by the incident, although he praised the track marshals for moving several walls at the fourth and sixth corners and adding new catch fencing to the circuit.