Will Power looked certain to claim another win in the Indy Grand Prix at Sonoma, but after leading 57 of the 85 laps he was caught out by a sluggish pit stop at a crucial point of the race which included a yellow flag coming out for a violent accident involving Sebastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden on lap 65.
Power's Penske team mate Ryan Briscoe took best advantage of the situation and jumped from second place to lead at the restart on lap 74. Suffering from some minor problems with his engine and his push-to-pass, Power decided a safe finish in second was better than risking all while vying for the win, and he duly focused on coming in ahead of Dario Franchitti and Rubens Barrichello at the chequered flag.
By this point, Power was also safe in the knowledge that his main rivals for the championship were out of the running for strong finishes. Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves had earlier clashed at the new turn 7 hairpin on lap 1, and Dixon's fightback from that early misfortune ended with further front wing damage and a penalty for running over pit lane equipment. Ryan Hunter-Reay was tipped into his own even more costly spin at the same corner by Alex Tagliani on lap 75, while James Hinchcliffe retired on lap 35 with oil pressure issues.
Full race report now available.
Race results1.
#28 Ryan Briscoe (C)
Penske 2:07:02.8248s (85 laps)2.
22 Will Power (C)
Penske + 0.44083.
20 Dario Franchitti (H)
Ganassi + 1.04974.
78 Rubens Barrichello (C)
KV Racing + 8.85295.
14 Graham Rahal (H)
Ganassi + 9.46676.
17 Helio Castroneves (C)
Penske + 11.2575 7.
5 Simon Pagenaud (H)
Schmidt + 12.3087 8.
26 JR Hildebrand (C)
Panther + 22.8121 9.
27 Alex Tagliani (H)
Bryan Herta + 39.6868s10.
15 Tony Kanaan (C)
KV Racing + 1 lap11.
6 Justin Wilson (H)
Dale Coyne + 1 lap12.
83 James Jakes (H)
Dale Coyne + 1 lap13.
7 Scott Dixon (H)
Ganassi + 1 lap14.
67 Mike Conway (H)
AJ Foyt + 1 lap15.
8 Sebastian Saavedra (C)
Andretti + 1 lap16.
38 EJ Viso (C)
KV Racing + 1 lap17.
3 Simona de Silvestro (L)
HVM + 1 lap18.
2 Ryan Hunter-Reay (C)
Andretti + 1 lap19.
12 Oriol Servia (C)
Panther/DRR + 1 lap20.
10 Ed Carpenter (C)
ECR + 1 lap21.
77 Charlie Kimball (H)
Ganassi + 3 laps22.
18 Sebastien Bourdais (C)
Dragon + 22 laps Contact23.
19 Josef Newgarden (H)
SFHR + 23 laps Contact24.
9 Katherine Legge (C)
Dragon + 37 laps Mechanical25.
4 Marco Andretti (C)
Andretti + 39 laps Mechanical26.
98 James Hinchcliffe (C)
Andretti + 50 laps Mechanical27.
11 Takuma Sato (H)
Rahal + 83 laps Off CourseFastest lap: Ryan Hunter-Reay, 1:19.1848s (108.430mph) on lap 82