IndyCar - De Silvestro Delivers Competitive Performance

Baltimore, September 5, 2011: Simona De Silvestro put on quite a show for the IZOD IndyCar fans, her sponsors and the city of Baltimore during Sunday's inaugural running of the Baltimore Grand Prix.

After a week away from the car - due to travel complications with the United States Customs & Border Patrol - De Silvestro was eager to get back into the cockpit and prove that she wants to finish the season strong.

During Saturday's qualifying session, the Swiss driver was able to advance to the second round and put the car in P12 on the starting grid. Due to several incidents that occurred in morning warmup on Sunday, her starting position moved up to P10.

After a fairly calm start to the 75-lap race, an early pit stop for two other drivers put De Silvestro in P8. She quickly passed Mike Conway to advance to P7.

Around the mid-way point of the race, De Silvestro was able to avoid contact during a massive pile-up in the hairpin. She charged forward, advancing positions, leading a lap at one point before the team, and the other top four cars, had to pit for fuel.

Unfortunately, fuel strategy was the name of the game. Because of the mid-race pileup and excessively long yellow-flag laps, the mid-pack teams were able to conserve just enough fuel to finish the race. De Silvestro, despite a perfectly-executed race, finished in P12.

"Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed in where we finished," said De Silvestro, "but the Nuclear Clean Air Energy car was really good. We were able to make positions every time we tried, like on the restarts. We were going forward and I really enjoyed myself. The track is a lot of fun - it's really busy, especially on red tires. It's such a physical track, but I like it. Plus, the support from my sponsors this weekend was amazing. I hope they had as much fun as I did!"

De Silvestro and her team first visited the city of Baltimore in February, where they announced a three-year partnership with Entergy Nuclear to promote the Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign. Since then, AREVA, the global leader in nuclear energy, has also come on board as an associate sponsor. De Silvestro was happy to be able to entertain her sponsors on what she's referred to as what feels like her "home track."