Indianapolis road course IndyCar: Power holds off Rahal for win
Will Power saw off a late threat from Graham Rahal to pick up his first win of the season in Saturday's IndyCar race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course
Power started from pole and led 65 of the 82 laps, conceding the advantage only when the pitstops were cycling through.
However he spent the final stint working to strike a balance between saving fuel and maintaining a gap to Rahal, who had popped up in second after staying out a lap longer than the leaders in his first stint.
The battle between the Penske and Rahal Letterman Lanigan drivers came to life in the final stint. Power had a 4.2-second lead over Rahal, but had less wiggle room with his fuel mileage.
That allowed Rahal to slash the gap down to just 1.5s in the space of six laps, but a combination of lapped traffic and improving fuel numbers gave Power the opportunity to reclaim some of the lost time, and he crossed the line 2.3s clear of his pursuer.
"That was hard when he [team president Tim Cindric] told me the [fuel] number I had to get and then told me 'Rahal's closing and is 0.8s quicker than you right now,'" said Power.
"I tried to save fuel in the spots where we'd not lose time and push in other areas.
"I think that was the most physical race I've ever won. I was so determined to win."
That Rahal was even in the position to harass Power owed a lot to a mess at the first corner.
It began when Scott Dixon, who had started alongside Power on the front row, was tagged into a spin by Helio Castroneves.
The concertina caused another clash further back between James Hinchcliffe and Barber winner Josef Newgarden, who completed his misery by stalling, and sent several other cars wide through the grass as they attempted to avoid adding to the carnage.
Rahal was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the whole thing - in the space of a couple of corners he shot from 17th to fifth - although he conceded later that he didn't have the outright pace he needed to catch Power.
"I've got to give it to my guys," he said. "The pitstops were good and we were able to make some moves when we had to.
"We weren't the quickest today, and when we were it was just because we had a clear track.
"I gave it everything I can to catch Power but he had a little bit too much."
Juan Pablo Montoya had Rahal in his sights for a while before backing off in the final stint to save fuel, and he spent the closing laps making sure that he remained ahead of Sebastien Bourdais. He was successful, and goes into the Indy 500 having fractionally extended his lead in the championship.
Castroneves did well to recover from the opening lap fracas to finish sixth behind Charlie Kimball, while Dixon, who was further delayed after the crash by the need for a new rear wing, fought back to 10th.
Defending race winner Simon Pagenaud was running in fifth place behind Montoya and Bourdais when he was forced to retire with a mechanical problem.
RESULTS - 82 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1h42m42.0940s |
2 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1.5023s |
3 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 7.1967s |
4 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 7.7336s |
5 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 25.1179s |
6 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 31.7352s |
7 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 32.3191s |
8 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | Dallara/Chevrolet | 35.3853s |
9 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 40.8267s |
10 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 47.4715s |
11 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 48.5410s |
12 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 49.5461s |
13 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 54.2372s |
14 | Luca Filippi | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 54.8713s |
15 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.3092s |
16 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.2448s |
17 | Sebastian Saavedra | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m09.2079s |
18 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1 Lap |
19 | Carlos Huertas | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1 Lap |
20 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1 Lap |
21 | J.R. Hildebrand | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1 Lap |
22 | Francesco Dracone | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 2 Laps |
23 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 13 Laps |
24 | Justin Wilson | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | Mechanical |
25 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | Mechanical |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 171 |
2 | Will Power | 166 |
3 | Helio Castroneves | 158 |
4 | Scott Dixon | 144 |
5 | Graham Rahal | 144 |
6 | Tony Kanaan | 136 |
7 | Josef Newgarden | 129 |
8 | James Hinchcliffe | 129 |
9 | Sebastien Bourdais | 123 |
10 | Simon Pagenaud | 101 |
11 | Carlos Munoz | 101 |
12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 100 |
13 | Marco Andretti | 95 |
14 | Charlie Kimball | 89 |
15 | Luca Filippi | 85 |
16 | James Jakes | 75 |
17 | Takuma Sato | 72 |
18 | Gabby Chaves | 71 |
19 | Stefano Coletti | 65 |
20 | Jack Hawksworth | 64 |
21 | Simona de Silvestro | 44 |
22 | Francesco Dracone | 38 |
23 | Sage Karam | 35 |
24 | Sebastian Saavedra | 33 |
25 | Carlos Huertas | 31 |
26 | Conor Daly | 13 |
27 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | 10 |
28 | J.R. Hildebrand | 9 |
29 | Justin Wilson | 6 |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments