The 1999 Grand Prix Telemar Rio 200 was the fifth round of the 1999 CART World Series Season, held on May 15, 1999, on the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Christian Fittipaldi won his first and only Pole Position of his career.
Report
Race The race was delayed due to rain, and the drivers had to wait for the track to dry out. On the second attempt to start, Juan Pablo Montoya dived past front-row starters Christian Fittipaldi and Dario Franchitti to take the lead. The trio quickly pulled away from the rest of the field with Franchitti taking second from Fittipaldi at the first round of pit stops, only for Fittipaldi to reverse the order a few laps later by passing Franchitti on the track. Neither, despite staying within two seconds of Montoya, were able to give a serious challenge to him, the Colombian taking his third successive win. The battle for second eventually went to Franchitti who beat Fittipaldi with a quicker second pitstop.
Classification
Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 108 1:36:32.233 3 20+1 2 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 108 +1.736 2 16 3 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 108 +3.954 1 14+1 4 7 Max Papis Team Rahal 108 +4.930 13 12 5 44 Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 108 +7.036 7 10 6 33 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 108 +7.618 9 8 7 20 P. J. Jones Patrick Racing 108 +8.057 16 6 8 99 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 108 +8.304 10 5 9 3 Tarso Marques Team Penske 108 +10.688 8 4 10 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 108 +11.241 4 3 11 18 Roberto Moreno PacWest Racing 108 +11.717 23 2 12 2 Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 108 +12.215 19 1 13 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 108 +14.138 5 14 22 Robby Gordon Team Gordon 108 +17.470 26 15 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 108 +20.214 12 16 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 107 +1 Lap 24 17 16 Gualter Salles Bettenhausen Racing 107 +1 Lap 21 18 71 Luiz Garcia Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 102 +6 Laps 27 19 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 101 Cooling 18 20 40 Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 83 Contact 17 21 25 Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 81 Turbo 14 22 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 61 Cooling 25 23 36 Alex Barron All American Racing 58 Overheating 22 24 24 Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 49 Turbo 20 25 9 Hélio Castro-Neves Hogan Racing 32 Turbo 11 26 6 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 28 Engine 15 27 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 23 Electrical 6
Caution flags Laps Cause1 Field not aligned30-36 Andretti (6) engine blow-up50-55 Pruett (24) engine blow-up85-90 Fernández (40) contact 91-95 Rain98-102 Gordon (22), Jourdain Jr. (19) contact
Lap Leaders
Laps Leader1 Christian Fittipaldi2-72 Juan Pablo Montoya73 Christian Fittipaldi74-76 Dario Franchitti77-86 Al Unser Jr.87-108 Juan Pablo Montoya Driver Laps ledJuan Pablo Montoya 93Al Unser Jr. 10Dario Franchitti 3Christian Fittipaldi 2
Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 Juan Pablo Montoya 66 2 Dario Franchitti 51 3 Christian Fittipaldi 49 4 Greg Moore 45 5 Adrián Fernández 43
References