Ryan Hunter-Reay stretches IndyCar winning streak in Toronto

Andretti Autosport driver Hunter-Reay, who came into the weekend having won the last two outings at Milwaukee and Iowa, benefited from pitting just before Ganassi's Graham Rahal crashed and brought out a yellow flag early on, which put him in a good positon to capitalise when the cars that had stayed out made their own stops under caution a couple of laps later.

He took the lead when Simon Pagenaud (Schmidt Hamilton) pitted and was never headed from there on, although he had to survive a chaotic final restart that ended with several cars in the barriers, and forced the race to be finished under yellows.

Among the victims was Dragon's Sebastien Bourdais, who was within sight of third before Ganassi's Charlie Kimball was bumped into him by Mike Conway and put him into the wall.

Kimball was able to hang on to finish a career-best second place, with AJ Foyt's Conway a great third after starting from 17th on the grid. Tony Kanaan (KV Racing Technology) was fourth despite a drivethrough penalty early on for clipping one of Oriol Servia's tyres in pitlane.

Hunter-Reay's victory came on a day when all of his main rivals met with disaster. Will Power (Penske) led early on, but was caught out by the timing of the first yellow and was shuffled back into the middle of the pack. It was while trying to recover lost ground that he brushed his front wing against the Sarah Fisher car of Josef Newgarden, prompting two visits to the pits for repairs.

It was an equally difficult afternoon in the Ganassi camp, where Scott Dixon became the race's first retiree when his engine failed after just eight laps. Things were scarely better for Dario Franchitti, who lost a lot of time in the pits when he pulled up too far from the wall to be within range of the fuel hose, and then later became another casualty of the final restart when he was squeezed into the wall by Penske's Ryan Briscoe, who himself was being forced wide by another car.

Results - 85 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                     Time/Gap
 1.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy     1h33m26.5096s
 2.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda          + 0.0757s
 3.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda             + 0.2848s
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy               + 1.6672s
 5.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy      + 1.9128s
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy           + 2.4795s
 7.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy          + 2.6233s
 8.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda            + 3.7294s
 9.  Takuma Sato          KV DW12-Honda               + 6.5633s
10.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda            + 9.9764s
11.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy              + 11.4636s
12.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda         + 43.8734s
13.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             + 1 lap
14.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Chevy             + 1 lap
15.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy             + 1 lap
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy           + 1 lap
17.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            + 1 lap
18.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy          + 1 lap
19.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy            + 2 laps
20.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy                + 4 laps

Retirements:

     Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda              67 laps
     James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy           28 laps
     Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            23 laps
     Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                 9 laps
     Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda             7 laps