Penske Racing’s Will Power took had the upper hand late in the race over Briton Justin Wilson to earn his fourth IZOD IndyCar race of the season at the Honda Indy of Toronto.
Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) had started from pole and had led most of the race when during a late restart he sled sideways out of the final corner, giving Power a run towards Turn 1, where he swept around the outside. It got worse still for Wilson as he then spun at Turn 8 and tumbled to the rear of the pack while Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) came through to second ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport). Things did not went according to plant for Power at the start as the Australian was bundled back from second to sixth behind his Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves, Franchitti (Ganassi), Andretti Autosport's Hunter-Reay and Ganassi's Scott Dixon in the opening corners.
But when the first yellow came up following an incident between KV Racing’s Mario Moraes and Takuma Sato, Wilson fell behind Castroneves, Franchitti and Power. Followed a series of incidents; Castroneves clipped Vitor Meira (Foyt) and flew into the tires at the end of the Turn 3, Alex Lloyd crashed his Dale Coyne car at Turn 1, then on the next restart attempt Moraes dived past Dan Wheldon (Panther) at Turn 3 and speared Mario Romancini's Conquest Dallara-Honda into the tires. Franchitti was the first of the lead group to make his last pit stop 32 laps from the end, and it looked like a masterstroke as Power and Wilson then encountered traffic. But both drivers made their stops and luckily emerged just ahead of Franchitti, with Dreyer & Reinbold getting Wilson out in front of Power and back into the race lead. Wilson, a former Formula 1 driver, pulled away rapidly, until another yellow with 20 laps to go, this time caused when Alex Tagliani (Fazzt) punted Raphael Matos (De Ferran Dragon) into a spin. But disaster struck for Wilson when he spun in front of Power giving away the lead. Power then stayed ahead of Franchitti through one last yellow for Tomas Scheckter (Dreyer & Reinbold) who got tangled with the unfortunate Tagliani at Turn 1. Hunter-Reay came through to third, surviving late contact with Dixon at Turn 3 that ended the Ganassi driver's race. Tony Kanaan was fourth for Andretti Autosport, while Graham Rahal charged through to a superb fifth on his return to Newman/Haas. IndyCar Honda Toronto Indy - Results Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Will Power Penske 1h47m15.2554s 2. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 1.2757s 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti + 1.7605s 4. Tony Kanaan Andretti + 3.5382s 5. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas + 9.7349s 6. Danica Patrick Andretti + 11.9439s 7. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold + 12.3783s 8. Marco Andretti Andretti + 16.3360s 9. Simona de Silvestro HVM + 21.5321s 10. Dan Wheldon Panther + 23.1537s 11. Vitor Meira Foyt + 25.8960s 12. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas + 26.2878s 13. Paul Tracy KV + 1 lap 14. Mario Moraes KV + 1 lap 15. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold + 1 lap 16. Bertrand Baguette Conquest + 1 lap 17. Alex Tagliani Fazzt + 1 lap 18. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 2 laps 19. EJ Viso KV + 3 laps Retirements: Scott Dixon Ganassi 71 laps Raphael Matos De Ferran Dragon 64 laps Mario Romancini Conquest 31 laps Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 26 laps Helio Castroneves Penske 21 laps Takuma Sato KV 15 laps Milka Duno Dale Coyne 8 laps Recent Articles
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