Scott Dixon took his first win of 2011 with a commanding performance at Mid-Ohio

Starting from pole, Dixon assumed control of the race from the outset, with his pace suggesting only bad luck with safety cars could upset his hopes of victory.

That fear was almost realised on lap 56, when a full course yellow handed Franchitti the lead - the Scot pitting one lap later than Dixon and crucially emerging ahead of him at the blend line as he rejoined. Dixon passed Franchitti 100m later, but had to hand the position back due to the full caution in operation.

With overtaking proving difficult, Dixon attacked the restart, passing Franchitti - who didn't offer too much resistance - at the first corner, before easing away to a 7.6s victory.

"We worked so hard to get pole, so to come back today for the win was fantastic," Dixon said. "(At the restart) I wanted to get back to the front and Dario didn't fight too hard, and I respect him a lot for that."

Franchitti finished second but made significant gains over title rival Power after the Australian was caught out by the full course yellow, caused as Danica Patrick helped Graham Rahal into a spin.

Power had opted to stay out one lap longer than Franchitti, but the tactic back-fired when the safety car emerged - the Australian dropping to the back of the field when he was finally able to come in. He made his way through to 14th at the finish, but now lies 62 points behind Franchitti in the championship.

Power's demotion promoted Ryan Hunter-Reay into third, with the Andretti man applying pressure to Franchitti but finding it impossible to pass in the final 15 laps.

Takuma Sato wound up fourth despite being involved in a three-way incident on the race's first of two restarts, while Tony Kanaan bounced back from his qualifying woes by finishing fifth.

Alex Tagliani, on probation this weekend, was cleared from an opening lap incident with Newman Haas' James Hinchcliffe and went on to finish sixth.

The incident dropped Hinchcliffe to the back of the field, but a perfectly timed first caution played into his hands - he had pitted one lap earlier - and he actually led from lap 22.

After the second round of stops he appeared in contention for a podium, only to spin at Turn 2 and once again drop to the back. He eventually finished 20th.

Results - 85 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi               1h48m46.9509s  
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                   + 7.6508s
 3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                  + 9.0784s
 4.  Takuma Sato          KV                       + 12.3062s 
 5.  Tony Kanaan          KV                       + 19.9748s 
 6.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt              + 20.6267s   
 7.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                 + 20.9094s
 8.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas              + 23.0252s 
 9.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne               + 23.6411s
10.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                     + 26.2582s  
11.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi                  + 27.4550s 
12.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                      + 29.0438s
13.  Simon Pagenaud       Dreyer & Reinbold        + 29.7880s
14.  Will Power           Penske                   + 42.5675s
15.  EJ Viso              KV                       + 45.3255s 
16.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                   + 45.7141s 
17.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold        + 47.0943s  
18.  Martin Plowman 	  Sam Schmidt	           + 48.3700s
19.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                   + 48.8679s 
20.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas              + 49.4093s 
21.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                 + 59.9851s 
22.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher           + 1m09.2913s 
23.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne             + 1m09.5303s 
24.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi                    + 2 laps 
25.  JR Hildebrand        Panther                    + 4 laps  
                                                    
Retirements:                                       
                                                          
     Mike Conway          Andretti                    63 laps  
     Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest                    20 laps