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 Hélio 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 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 133 1:52:14.135 7 20 2 1 Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 133 +0.427 2 16+1 3 40 Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 133 +4.839 12 14 4 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 133 +12.951 6 12 5 6 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 133 +14.324 8 10 6 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 133 +15.251 13 8 7 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 133 +15.799 28 6 8 7 Bobby Rahal Team Rahal 133 +28.649 10 5 9 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing Group 132 +1 Lap 21 4 10 9 JJ Lehto Hogan Racing 132 +1 Lap 22 3 11 18 Mark Blundell PacWest Racing Group 132 +1 Lap 18 2 12 36 Alex Barron All American Racing 131 +2 Laps 24 1 13 98 P. J. Jones All American Racing 130 +3 Laps 23 14 77 Arnd Meier Davis Racing 130 +3 Laps 19 15 24 Hiro Matsushita Arciero-Wells Racing 129 +4 Laps 26 16 2 Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 118 Engine 27 17 33 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 106 Handling 17 18 20 Scott Pruett Patrick Racing 98 Transmission 15 19 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 90 Electrical 1 1 20 34 Gualter Salles Payton/Coyne Racing 89 Contact 14 21 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 78 Fuel system 5 22 3 André Ribeiro Team Penske 76 Transmission 16 23 16 Hélio Castro-Neves Bettenhausen Racing 54 Engine 11 24 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 53 Contact 25 25 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 39 Contact 9 26 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 39 Contact 4 27 21 Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports Group 28 Engine 3 28 25 Max Papis Arciero-Wells Racing 17 Engine 20
Caution flags Laps Cause29-35 Kanaan (21) engine blow-up39-45 Tracy (26), de Ferran (5) contact54-58 Jourdain Jr. (19) contact 90-96 Salles (34) contact
Lap Leaders
Laps Leader1-77 Alex Zanardi78-81 Richie Hearn82-88 Dario Franchitti89-128 Alex Zanardi129-133 Greg Moore Driver Laps ledAlex Zanardi 117Dario Franchitti 7Greg Moore 5Richie Hearn 4
Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 Greg Moore 71 2 Alex Zanardi 67 3 Adrián Fernández 55 4 Jimmy Vasser 39 5 Bryan Herta 37
References