Power wins delayed Sao Paulo race

For much of the event it looked like the first victory of Takuma Sato's IndyCar career was on the cards, but a strategy gamble by the KV team failed to pay off, with a late stop for the ex-Formula 1 driver allowing Power to come through and win again.

The race resumed in the order that had been in place under the final red flag of Sunday's abortive attempt, with Power leading Penske team-mate Ryan Briscoe, Sato and Graham Rahal (Ganassi).

As the field took the green flag, the morning's slight drizzle turned into more concerted rain, forcing everyone to pit for wets at the end of the first racing lap.

Power started to edge away at first, with Sato swiftly making his way up to second. Then at the restart following the first yellow - caused by incidents for Ryan Hunter-Reay and Sebastien Bourdais - Sato out-muscled Power through the first chicane and grabbed the lead.

With the two-hour time limit still in place and Sunday's running counting towards that tally, the re-run was not going to last any more than one hour and 19 minutes.

This encouraged several drivers to try and get through the distance without pitting, hoping for enough yellows to let them save sufficient fuel.

Sato was among those to take this gamble, along with Andretti Autosport's Marco Andretti and Sato's KV team-mate EJ Viso. All three stayed out as the majority of their rivals came in during a mid-race yellow, and filled the top three on what turned out to be the final restart.

As Andretti and Viso had a tough battle for second - which resulted in the latter receiving a blocking penalty - Sato was able to pull away in the lead.

But with no further yellows, it became clear that the no-stop strategy would not be possible, and both Andretti and Sato had to pit in the closing stages, with Andretti boldly - but unsuccessfully - taking on slicks.

Power therefore returned to the lead once Sato had pitted, and went on to win by 4.6s over Ganassi's Graham Rahal. The American recovered well from an early spin to take by far his best result of 2011 so far, ahead of Briscoe.

Fourth place for Dario Franchitti meant he lost the points lead to Power, but was a very satisfactory result considering he had required a new front wing after an excursion at the first corner.

Oriol Servia continued his strong season for Newman/Haas with fifth place, while Mike Conway recovered from his Sunday electrical problems to come through from 20th to sixth. Justin Wilson was another man to spin today and finished seventh for Dreyer & Reinbold.

Sato had to settle for eighth. James Hinchcliffe (Newman/Haas) and JR Hildebrand (Panther) completed the top 10.

An early pitstop allowed Sebastian Saavedra to run as high as third for Conquest, although he ultimately had to stop again so fell to 11th. Scott Dixon was only 12th for Ganassi, ahead of Viso and Andretti, after a spin.

Results - 55 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 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

Retirements:

     Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold        31 laps
     Raphael Matos        AFS                      28 laps
     Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne               20 laps