Date March 3, 1996 | ||
Official name Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Location Homestead, Florida, United States Course Oval
1.527 mi / 2.457 km Distance 133 laps
203.091 mi / 326.843 km Driver Paul Tracy (Penske Racing) | ||
The 1996 Toyota Grand Prix of Miami was a CART race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was the first round of the 1996 IndyCar season, and occurred on March 3, 1996.
Contents
Qualifying
Canadian driver Paul Tracy, from Penske Racing set the pole.
Race
The start happened, but Mark Blundell and Roberto Moreno had a contact. Moreno crashed at turn 4 and retired. Then, the start was aborted for the second time, as Tracy jumped the start. At the end of lap 1, another caution came out as Michael Andretti hit Maurício Gugelmin and lost his front wing. After his pit stop, his car had stalled. Despite this, Andretti did not retire. After the restart, the rain began to fall down, and the red flag came out. After 17 laps of green flag, as the restart came out at lap 36, another caution came out as Gugelmin spun and brushed the wall. He retired. The restart came out four laps later. At the same lap, Al Unser, Jr. hit Carlos Guerrero, and lost his front wing. Another caution came out. Restart came out at lap 61. With 69 laps to go, Tracy was the leader, Gil de Ferran was in second and Jimmy Vasser was in third. After some infractions, Guerrero and Greg Moore went to the pits for the stop-go penalty. On lap 82, the caution came out after some debris on the track. Then, Alex Zanardi crashed under caution; he lost a wheel and crashed very hard at turn 4. He was OK. On the same lap, Tracy retired due to transmission problems. The restart came out with 30 laps to go. Vasser won the race, de Ferran finished in 2nd, Robby Gordon finished 3rd, Scott Pruett finished 4th, Bobby Rahal finished in 5th, Christian Fittipaldi finished in 6th, Moore finished in 7th, Unser, Jr. finished in 8th, Andretti finished in 9th, Bryan Herta finished 10th, Adrian Fernández 11th, Scott Goodyear 12th, Emerson Fittipaldi 13th, Raul Boesel 14th, Eddie Lawson 15th, André Ribeiro 16th, Blundell 17th and Matsushita 18th, 9 laps behind the leader. Parker Johnstone did not start the race due to a practice crash.