1996 Grand Prix of Long Beach
Introduction The '''1996 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach''' was the 4th round of the 1996 IndyCar season. It happened on April 14, 1996, on the streets of Long Beach, California.
Race ===Start===At the end of lap 1, de Ferran was leading the race, as he led most laps of the race.===Laps 4–39===At lap 4, Brazilian driver André Ribeiro crashed at turn 1.He retired. At lap 14, the top 6 was: Gil de Ferran, Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, Scott Pruett, Paul Tracy and Parker Johnstone. The 1st caution came out at lap 39, as Zanardi had hit Bobby Rahal at turn 1.Zanardi retired. At the same lap, Robby Gordon had a fire in his pit area. Despite this, Robby did not retire.===Laps 41–65===The top 6 at lap 41 was: de Ferran, Vasser, Tracy, Johnstone, Pruett and Greg Moore. At lap 49, the 2nd caution came out, as Moore collided with Christian Fittipaldi at the last turn before the hairpin. Both retired. Emerson Fittipaldi had hit some debris from that collision, thus, damaging the suspension of his car. He also retired. Al Unser Jr. was now in sixth place. Then, at lap 54, Raul Boesel committed a mistake and missed the turn 1.He would do this again laps later. At lap 57, Robby Gordon had hit Bryan Herta at the hairpin. They did not retired. At lap 65, Teo Fabi, who was replacing Mark Blundell, after he suffered a broken foot at the Rio 400, suffered a puncture. The cause of the puncture, probably, was when he collided with Michael Andretti at the opening laps. Andretti had hit Fabi from behind and damaged his front wing.===Laps 70–95===The 3rd caution came out, as Robby Gordon had hit the wall. The top 10 was: de Ferran, Tracy, Vasser, Johnstone, Unser Jr., Adrian Fernandez, Andretti, Roberto Moreno, Eddie Lawson and Richie Hearn. At the same lap, Paul Tracy was black flagged after overtaking Vasser during caution. He did a stop-and-go penalty one lap later. At lap 95, Dennis Vitolo retired due to mechanical problems===Closing stages===With 4 laps to go, de Ferran suffered mechanical problems and lost the lead to Jimmy Vasser. Then, 1 lap later, Bobby Rahal and Bryan Herta collided at the hairpin. Jimmy Vasser won the race.===Final results=== Pos  No  Driver  Team  Laps  Time/Retired  Grid  Points 1 12  Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 105 1:44:02.363  3  '''20''' 2 49   Parker Johnstone Comptech Racing 105 + 3.447  6  '''16''' 3 2  Al Unser Jr. Penske Racing 105 + 4.409  9  '''14''' 4 3   Paul Tracy Penske Racing 105 + 5.000  4  '''12''' 5 8  Gil de Ferran Jim Hall Racing 105 + 32.073  1  '''12''' 6 32   Adrián Fernández Tasman Motorsports 105 + 36.322  13  '''8''' 7 6   Michael Andretti Newman/Haas Racing 104 + 1 Lap  12 '''6''' 8 34  Roberto Moreno Payton/Coyne Racing 104 + 1 Lap   18  '''5''' 9 10   Eddie Lawson Galles Racing International 104 + 1 Lap   24  '''4''' 10 44   Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 103 + 2 Laps   22   '''3''' 11 20   Scott Pruett Patrick Racing 103 + 2 Laps   5  '''2''' 12 28   Bryan Herta Team Rahal 100 + 5 Laps  17  '''1''' 13 5  Robby Gordon Walker Racing 98 + 7 Laps  7   14 18  Bobby Rahal Team Rahal 98 + 7 Laps  21   15 17  Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 97 + 8 Laps  11  16 1  Raul Boesel Team Green 90 + 15 Laps  16  17 64  Dennis Vitolo Project Indy 87 Electrical 28  18 21  Teo Fabi PacWest Racing 86 Clutch 19  19 16  Stefan Johansson Bettenhausen Racing 50 Engine 20  20 9  Emerson Fittipaldi Hogan-Penske Racing 48 Accident 14  21 11  Christian Fittipaldi Newman/Haas Racing 47 Accident 10  22 99  Greg Moore Team Forsythe 47 Accident 8  23 22  Michel Jourdain Jr. Team Scandia 46 Radiator 27  24 4  Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 39 Accident 2  25 36  Juan Fangio II All American Racers 29 Oil leak 26  26 25  Jeff Krosnoff Arciero/Wells Racing 23 Engine 23  27 31  André Ribeiro Tasman Motorsports 4 Accident 15  28 19  Hiro Matsushita Payton/Coyne Racing 1 Electrical 25  Sources:
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