Takuma Sato came up 10 minutes short of potentially claiming his first IZOD IndyCar Series victory. Will Power, not usually one to pay attention to time, said “obrigado.”
Power, the pole sitter and re-start leader of the rain-postponed Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle, came into the pits for a splash of fuel on Lap 36 (the race resumed on Lap 15). Sato, who overtook Power on a Lap 25 restart, gambled on stretching the 22 gallons of 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol following a Lap 17 stop that included switching to Firestone Firehawk rain tires.
But the yellow flag sought didn’t materialize and the second-year driver of the No. 5 KV Racing Technology-Lotus car had to pit on Lap 48 of 55 in the timed race. Power inherited the point and went on to his second victory of the season and the championship points lead. IndyCar.com
Graham Rahal was second and Ryan Briscoe third on a wet track at the 2.5-mile, 11-turn Anhembi temporary street circuit.
Power finished 4.672 seconds ahead of Rahal and 7.904 in front of Briscoe. It was his second win in four races this season, giving him the points lead going into the Indy 500 later this month. He has started from the pole in all four races.
Former drivers’ leader Dario Franchitti recovered from a crash to finish fourth in the race, which ended at the two-hour limit with only 55 of the scheduled 75 laps completed. Tha Canadian Press
“I’m really happy to get the car in victory lane again,” Power said. “I’ve been on pole four times and had two wins, so it’s a great start.”
“It was a matter of keeping calm and getting past people without any mistakes and then pulling a gap to be safe,” Power added.
Power claimed his 11th overall win in major open-wheel racing. All of his victories have come on road/street courses.
Rahal held off a hard-charging Ryan Briscoe in the closing laps.
“We were lucky to be quick enough there at the end that we were able to keep up with Will but not let Ryan close in, because we had to save a lot of fuel,” Rahal said. MiamiHerald.com
Franchitti was one of the many drivers having trouble breaking into the first corner with several others being forced into the runoff area. Danica Patrick, Canadian Alex Tagliani, James Jakes and Justin Wilson also had problems on the slick track.
Venezuela’s E.J. Viso had a good run on the wet and was up to second before receiving a drive-through penalty for repeatedly blocking Marco Andretti. Viso dropped to ninth after the penalty and eventually finished 13th, one position ahead of Andretti. Tha Canadian Press
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