1998 Rio 400

1998 Rio 400
Race details
Race 5 of 19 in the 1998 CART season
Date May 10, 1998
Official name Rio 400
Location Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Course Permanent racing facility
1.864 mi / 3.000 km
Distance 133 laps
247.912 mi / 398.976 km
Pole position
Driver Dario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green)
Time 39.005[1]
Fastest lap
Driver Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time 39.328 (on lap 131 of 133)
Podium
First Greg Moore (Forsythe Racing)
Second Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Third Adrian Fernández (Patrick Racing)

The 1998 Rio 400 was the fifth round of the 1998 CART World Series Season, held on May 10, 1998 on the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Qualifying

The Scottish driver Dario Franchitti, from Team Green set the pole.

Race

At the start, the Italian driver Alex Zanardi, from Chip Ganassi Racing took the lead. At lap 19, fellow Italian driver Max Papis, from Arciero-Wells Racing retired due to a broken engine. After 21 laps, the top six was: Alex Zanardi, Gil de Ferran, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Christian Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti. At lap 30, Kanaan, from Tasman Motorsports, retired due to an engine fire, bringing out the first caution of the race. The lead lap cars went to pit stop at the same lap. Newman-Haas Racing driver Michael Andretti hit a tire in the pits, then he suffered a penalty. The restart came out at lap 37. A few laps later, Team Green driver Paul Tracy was hit by Gil de Ferran, from Walker Racing. 2nd caution. The restart was out at lap 47. Lap 54, the Mexican driver Michel Jourdain, Jr., from Payton/Coyne Racing hit the wall, bringing out the third caution. The restart came out at lap 60. Michael Andretti did an overtaking show. He was one lap down in 24th. After some laps, he was in sixth.

With 65 laps to go, Zanardi, Bryan Herta, Adrian Fernández and Greg Moore did their pit stops during green flag. At that time, Fittipaldi, André Ribeiro and Helio Castroneves were out of the race. Only two Brazilian drivers were in the race at that moment: Maurício Gugelmin and Gualter Salles. At lap 91, Salles retired due to a crash at turn one, bringing out the fourth caution. At the same lap, polesitter Dario Franchitti retired due an engine issue. The restart happened at lap 98. After this lap, Scott Pruett, from Patrick Racing, retired. Player's Forsythe Racing driver Patrick Carpentier, suffered a tire problem at lap 102, and retired. At lap 108, the top 10 was: Zanardi, Moore, Fernandez, Richie Hearn, Herta, Jimmy Vasser, Al Unser, Jr., Andretti, Bobby Rahal and Mark Blundell. From lap 116-onwards, the battle for the win was between the Italian Alex Zanardi and the Canadian Greg Moore. At lap 120, Moore almost lost the control of his car, after he went sideways at turn four. With five laps to go, Moore did an amazing overtake manoeuvre on Zanardi, and took the lead. The German driver Arnd Meier, was in front of both. Moore won the race, his first win of the season, the third win of his Champ Car career.

Classification

Race

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 99 Canada Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 133 1:52:14.135 7 20
2 1 Italy Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 133 +0.427 2 16+1
3 40 Mexico Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 133 +4.839 12 14
4 8 United States Bryan Herta Team Rahal 133 +12.951 6 12
5 6 United States Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 133 +14.324 8 10
6 12 United States Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 133 +15.251 13 8
7 10 United States Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 133 +15.799 28 6
8 7 United States Bobby Rahal Team Rahal 133 +28.649 10 5
9 17 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing Group 132 +1 Lap 21 4
10 9 Finland JJ Lehto Hogan Racing 132 +1 Lap 22 3
11 18 United Kingdom Mark Blundell PacWest Racing Group 132 +1 Lap 18 2
12 36 United States Alex Barron All American Racing 131 +2 Laps 24 1
13 98 United States P. J. Jones All American Racing 130 +3 Laps 23
14 77 West Germany Arnd Meier Davis Racing 130 +3 Laps 19
15 24 Japan Hiro Matsushita Arciero-Wells Racing 129 +4 Laps 26
16 2 United States Al Unser, Jr. Team Penske 118 Engine 27
17 33 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 106 Handling 17
18 20 United States Scott Pruett Patrick Racing 98 Transmission 15
19 27 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Team Green 90 Electrical 1 1
20 34 Brazil Gualter Salles Payton/Coyne Racing 89 Contact 14
21 11 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 78 Fuel system 5
22 3 Brazil André Ribeiro Team Penske 76 Transmission 16
23 16 Brazil Hélio Castro-Neves Bettenhausen Racing 54 Engine 11
24 19 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 53 Contact 25
25 26 Canada Paul Tracy Team Green 39 Contact 9
26 5 Brazil Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 39 Contact 4
27 21 Brazil Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports Group 28 Engine 3
28 25 Italy Max Papis Arciero-Wells Racing 17 Engine 20

Caution flags

Laps Cause
29-35 Kanaan (21) engine blow-up
39-45 Tracy (26), de Ferran (5) contact
54-58 Jourdain Jr. (19) contact
90-96 Salles (34) contact

Lap Leaders

Laps Leader
1-77 Alex Zanardi
78-81 Richie Hearn
82-88 Dario Franchitti
89-128 Alex Zanardi
129-133 Greg Moore
 
Driver Laps led
Alex Zanardi 117
Dario Franchitti 7
Greg Moore 5
Richie Hearn 4

Point standings after race

Pos Driver Points
1 Canada Greg Moore 71
2 Italy Alex Zanardi 67
3 Mexico Adrián Fernández 55
4 United States Jimmy Vasser 39
5 United States Bryan Herta 37

References

  1. "Team KOOL Green at the Rio 200 in Brazil". theautochannel.com. The Auto Channel. 1999-05-07. Retrieved 2009-12-21. Fast facts on Franchitti: Won the pole at Rio in 1998, setting a track record with a lap of 172.039 mph / 39.005 seconds.
Previous race:
1998 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix
CART FedEx Championship Series
1998 season
Next race:
1998 Motorola 300

Previous race:
1997 Hollywood Rio 400k
Rio 400 Next race:
1999 Grand Prix Telemar Rio 200
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