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Dixon awarded controversial win

Scott Dixon was awarded victory at Edmonton after Helio Castroneves had the win taken away, having been adjudged to have blocked his team-mate Will Power

Castroneves crossed the line first, having snatched the lead from Power late on. But the chequered flag was held back for Dixon, who had also slipped past Power, as the officials stopped scoring Castroneves on the final lap as a punishment for an allegedly illegal defensive move, dropping him to 10th.

Power seemed in complete control for most of the race, holding a secure lead over Castroneves. Their team-mate Ryan Briscoe even briefly gave Penske a one-two-three formation by passing Ganassi duo Dario Franchitti and Dixon in quick succession near the end of the first stint, though they would return the favour and demote him back to fifth shortly before the final stops.

It was just after that final round of pit visits that Castroneves surged onto Power's tail, the Australian having stayed with the harder black tyres at the stop where his team-mates and Ganssi took the faster but fragile reds.

Suddenly Power was struggling to hold Castroneves off, and with 19 laps to go the Brazilian swept past into Turn 1, then left Power to fend off Dixon.

A late yellow gave Power one last shot at attacking Castroneves, but his attempt to drive round around the outside of the leader at Turn 1 saw him lose second to Dixon as he slid wide. It was while fending off Power at this point that Castroneves was judged to have blocked his team-mate unfairly. The decision left Castroneves both distraught and enraged as he realised the win had been taken away.

Franchitti and Briscoe completed the top four, with Ryan Hunter-Reay snatching fifth for Andretti Autosport in a late battle with Paul Tracy. The Canadian hero charged through to an excellent sixth for KV - which got all four of its cars into the top 10, with Takuma Sato, Mario Moraes and EJ Viso filling seventh to ninth places.

Tracy made rapid progress from his 15th place on the grid, although his early charge did involve contact that ruined De Ferran Dragon driver Raphael Matos' race. He later overtook Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) for sixth mid-race, but lost out to the American again while trying to pass Briscoe at the final restart.

Sixth could easily have gone to the hugely impressive Simona de Silvestro of HVM, who was fighting for the position until pushed into a spin by Viso. She recovered to 11th before her car expired late on.

Andretti's Tony Kanaan came through from the back row of the grid to 12th, although his race also involved contact along the way, as a brush with Alex Tagliani sent the Fazzt entry spinning into Conquest's Mario Romancini.

Other drivers in trouble including the Dreyer & Reinbold duo, who both had to pit for suspension repairs, and Hideki Mutoh (Newman/Haas), who lost a lot of ground with a mid-race spin.

Pos  Driver               Team               Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            95 laps
 2.  Will Power           Penske             + 2.6688s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            + 3.2831s
 4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             + 8.8652s
 5.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           + 11.1482s
 6.  Paul Tracy           KV                 + 11.9091s
 7.  Mario Moraes         KV                 + 16.9015s
 8.  EJ Viso              KV                 + 18.2206s
 9.  Takuma Sato          KV                 + 21.5880s
10.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             + 42.6011s
11.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           + 1 lap
12.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           + 1 lap
13.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   + 1 lap
14.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           + 1 lap
15.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           + 1 lap
16.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               + 2 laps
17.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        + 2 laps
18.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         + 3 laps
19.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold  + 5 laps
20.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            + 5 laps
21.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  + 7 laps

Retirements:

     Simona de Silvestro  HVM                87 laps
     Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              52 laps
     Mario Romancini      Conquest           52 laps
     Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         4 laps

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