IndyCar - Simona de Silvestro Wins Fastest Lap At Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo, May 2, 2011: After a disappointing start to the Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 on Sunday, Simona de Silvestro used her skills and a good car to complete the fastest lap of the race.

On Sunday, only seconds after the green flag dropped on a rain-soaked track, de Silvestro narrowly missed hitting Helio Castroneves, whose car spun in front of her. Behind her, Tony Kanaan made contact with Danica Patrick, sending Patrick's car underneath de Silvestro's. The #78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy car sustained only minimal damage to the front wing and side bodywork. De Silvestro wanted to continue and asked the officials if she could stay in the car.

"I was told it was too dangerous to get Danica out that way," she said.

After several other incidents on the water-logged streets of Sao Paulo, race control red-flagged the race on lap nine. The HVM Racing crew, and other teams involved in collisions, worked vigorously to repair the cars and get them back on track for a rainy restart more than two hours later. The field completed only a few more laps under yellow before the red flag fell for the second time on Sunday. League officials scheduled the restart for 9 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) on Monday.

Now starting nine laps down on Monday morning, de Silvestro began the race just as the rain started to fall again, causing quite a few new incidents. De Silvestro persevered, moving up several positions and gaining a lap back by passing the race leaders at the time. She finished P20 but was awarded IndyCar's Fastest Lap of the Race.

"We were really fast on the track today and if we didn't have that mishap yesterday, I think we could've really gone forward. I definitely want to thank my sponsors at Entergy and the Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign. Overall, we can be happy with the car and we worked hard, but it was disappointing for sure. It seemed like we caught up to the leaders pretty quickly. You never know what's going to happen in racing, but I think we had a strong car."

For de Silvestro and the other drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series, it's on to the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. Last year, de Silvestro achieved the prestigious honor of being named the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. On May 29, 2011, watch for her to compete for her chance to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.