Will Power (Penske) took his first victory of the 2011 IndyCar Series’ season by winning Sunday from pole to finish the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.
Right from the start, the Australian maintained his lead and rapidly extended the gap between himself and his closest rivals; teammate Ryan Briscoe and Ganassi’s Scott Dixon. The first caution came early as Alex Tagliani (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) spun and stalled his engine, allowing Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) to jump the Newman/Haas car driven by Oriol Servia at the first stops, which also saw Dixon take second from Briscoe. A little while later Franchitti would do the same and pass Briscoe. The first restart lap saw EJ Viso (KV) spin and collect Canadian rookie James Hinchcliffe (Newman/Haas), and also force HVM's Simona de Silvestro to come to a halt. Later on, on another restart, Mike Conway crashed his Andretti Autosports car heavily, while a contact between Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato left the KV Dallara with a broken wing and the Dreyer & Reinbold entry with a puncture. Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosports) drove a strong race to fourth, just ahead of Servia who completed the top 5. It was a great afternoon also for Tony Kanaan (KV), who jumped from 24th to 14th on the opening lap alone and eventually finished sixth. IndyCar Alabama Grand Prix Results - 90 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Will Power Penske 2h14m42.9523s 2. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 3.3828s 3. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 15.5243s 4. Marco Andretti Andretti + 28.9601s 5. Oriol Servia Newman/Haas + 29.8817s 6. Tony Kanaan KV + 30.3853s 7. Helio Castroneves Penske + 30.7807s 8. Simon Pagenaud Dreyer & Reinbold + 31.2095s 9. Simona de Silvestro HVM + 32.5812s 10. Charlie Kimball Ganassi + 35.0038s 11. Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne + 35.9883s 12. Vitor Meira Foyt + 42.6440s 13. JR Hildebrand Panther + 44.2950s 14. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti + 1m00.7427s 15. Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt + 1m10.6879s 16. Takuma Sato KV + 1m12.1719s 17. Danica Patrick Andretti + 1 lap 18. Graham Rahal Ganassi + 2 laps Retirements: Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 62 laps Raphael Matos AFS 62 laps Ryan Briscoe Penske 57 laps Mike Conway Andretti 45 laps EJ Viso KV 40 laps James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas 40 laps James Jakes Dale Coyne 30 laps Sebastian Saavedra Conquest 27 laps
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