Power wins in slippery Sao Paulo

Will Power has taken a fine victory in the rain-delayed Sao Paulo Indy 300.

Team Penske’s pit strategy allowed Power to sweep to the front with eight laps remaining, to lead home Graham Rahal, Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti and Oriol Servia.

Having led when the red flag was called after 15 laps on Sunday, Power controlled the restart, before leading the field down pit road for wet tyres at the end of the lap as rain began to fall.

The first caution was soon called for the stranded cars of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Sebastien Bourdais, allowing an aggresive Takuma Sato to pass Power on the double-file restart.

Championship leader Dario Franchitti found the tyre barriers at Turn 1 on Lap 33, but kept his engine running and rejoined, only for the full-course yellow to appear for a spun Alex Tagliani a lap later.

The yellow led to the race’s defining moment, with Sato, Marco Andretti (running third) and EJ Viso (running fifth) among those choosing not to pit, while the other top-six runners, Power, Servia and Briscoe, led a group of cars into the lane.

With Power restarting eighth, Viso made it a KV Lotus one-two by passing Andretti for second shortly after the race resumed. It was not to last for Viso however, as the Venezuelan was black flagged for blocking five laps later.

Andretti made his pitstop just inside fifteen minutes remaining, and took an ambitious gamble for slicks. The American did well not to wall the car, and eventually slid his way to 14th.

Sato abandoned his futile fuel strategy and pitted with less than 10 minutes remaining, handing the lead to Power, who had calmly made his way by Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal and Sebastian Saavedra since the last restart.

Winner last time out at Long Beach, Mike Conway took sixth at the flag, from Justin Wilson, who was one of many to endure a spin during the race, and Sato.

Rookies James Hinchcliffe, JR Hildebrand and Saavedra filled ninth through 11th, while Scott Dixon led home Viso and Andretti in 12th – the Chip Ganassi driver having brought out the caution with a Turn 2 spin on Lap 38.

Power has now won two of the season’s opening four races, and holds a 14 point lead over Franchitti in the championship standings.

See below for the full race result

1	Will Power	Penske	2h04m05.2964s
2	Graham Rahal	Ganassi	+ 4.6723s
3	Ryan Briscoe	Penske	+ 7.9037s
4	Dario Franchitti	Ganassi	+ 10.1470s
5	Oriol Servia	Newman/Haas	+ 15.8188s
6	Mike Conway	Andretti	+ 16.6775s
7	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold	+ 20.0131s
8	Takuma Sato	KV	+ 23.0683s
9	James Hinchcliffe	Newman/Haas	+ 25.2924s
10	JR Hildebrand	Panther	+ 31.3172s
11	Sebastian Saavedra	Conquest	+ 36.4261s
12	Scott Dixon	Ganassi	+ 42.1974s
13	EJ Viso	KV	+ 45.8266s
14	Marco Andretti	Andretti	+ 1m14.5634s
15	James Jakes	Dale Coyne	+ 1m16.2783s
16	Charlie Kimball	Ganassi	+ 1 lap
17	Vitor Meira	Foyt	+ 2 laps
18	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti	+ 5 laps
19	Alex Tagliani	Sam Schmidt	+ 7 laps
20	Simona de Silvestro	HVM	+ 9 laps
21	Helio Castroneves	Penske	+ 9 laps
22	Tony Kanaan	KV	+ 9 laps
23	Danica Patrick	Andretti	+ 9 laps
DNF	Ana Beatriz	Dreyer & Reinbold	31 laps
DNF	Raphael Matos	AFS	28 laps
DNF	Sebastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne	20 laps

See below for the full championship standings

1	Will Power	168
2	Dario Franchitti	154
3	Oriol Servia	110
4	Mike Conway	102
5	Ryan Briscoe	101
6	Tony Kanaan	99
7	Alex Tagliani	85
8	Scott Dixon	84
9	Graham Rahal	82
10	Takuma Sato	80
11	Simona de Silvestro	78
12	Vitor Meira	77
13	Marco Andretti	70
14	Justin Wilson	70
15	Danica Patrick	69
16	JR Hildebrand	69
17	Helio Castroneves	68
18	Raphael Matos	67
19	James Hinchcliffe	66
20	Sebastian Saavedra	62
21	Charlie Kimball	58
22	James Jakes	55
23	Ryan Hunter-Reay	52
24	E.J. Viso	51
25	Sebastien Boursais	44
26	Ana Beatriz	40
27	Simon Pagenaud	24
28	Paul Tracy	14