1999 Grand Prix Telemar Rio 200

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.

1999 Rio

Race details
Race 5 of 20 in the 1999 CART season
Date	May 15, 1999
Official name	1999 Grand Prix Telemar Rio 200
Location	Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.864 mi / 3.000 km
Distance	108 laps 201.312 mi / 323.978 km
Weather	Light rain
Pole position
Driver	Christian Fittipaldi (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time	38.565
Fastest lap
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time	38.891 (on lap 107 of 108)
Podium
First	Juan Pablo Montoya (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	Dario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green)
Third	Christian Fittipaldi (Newman-Haas Racing)

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 pitstops, 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	Cause
1	Field not aligned
30-36	Andretti (6) engine blow-up
50-55	Pruett (24) engine blow-up
85-90	Fernández (40) contact
91-95	Rain
98-102	Gordon (22), Jourdain, Jr. (19) contact

Lap Leaders

Laps Leader 1 Christian Fittipaldi 2-72 Juan Pablo Montoya 73 Christian Fittipaldi 74-76 Dario Franchitti 77-86 Al Unser, Jr. 87-108 Juan Pablo Montoya

Driver Laps led Juan Pablo Montoya 93 Al Unser, Jr. 10 Dario Franchitti 3 Christian Fittipaldi 2

Point standings after race

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Juan Pablo Montoya	66
2	Dario Franchitti	51
3	Christian Fittipaldi	49
4	Greg Moore	45
5	Adrián Fernández	43

References

Previous race: 1999 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix	CART FedEx Championship Series 1999 season	Next race: 1999 Motorola 300
Previous race: 1998 Rio 400	Rio 200	Next race: 2000 Rio 200