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Sonoma IndyCar: Scott Dixon gets fifth title, Rossi fightback fails

Scott Dixon sealed a fifth IndyCar title at Sonoma after Alexander Rossi's early error proved insurmountable for the Andretti driver, whose team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay was victorious in the season finale

Hunter-Reay followed up his first pole since 2014 with a lights-to-flag victory in which he was largely unopposed as the title race took the driving seat.

Dixon closed rapidly around midway into the race but backed out before Hunter-Reay took a measured win.

Hunter-Reay took the two bonus points for leading the most laps just after half-distance, ruling out the already very slim title hopes of Penske duo Josef Newgarden and Will Power - who needed to win and hope for a Dixon disaster alongside those extra points.

But Newgarden and Power's slim hopes faded as the former stalled in the pitlane, while the latter made no impression on the leaders and finished third.

Dixon had entered the race with a 29-point buffer over his true title rival Rossi, meaning the Andretti Autosport driver had to at least finish several places ahead of the title favourite.

But Rossi was forced into a fightback after clumsily clipping the rear of team-mate Marco Andretti at the first corner of the race, damaging the front-right corner of his car.

He slowed, cutting a section of the track, and returned to the pits before resuming the race a lap down.

Rossi took until lap 35 of 85 to get close to unlapping himself as he gave title rival Dixon something to think about by hounding the Ganassi man.

A slight error from Dixon allowed Rossi through before he finally unlapped himself when Hunter-Reay made a stop, and Rossi was then handed a brilliant stroke of luck when Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal stopped and caused a full-course caution just past half-distance.

Rossi had pitted just before the yellow, putting him at a fuel and tyre advantage.

He quickly dived back into the pits from 12th for a splash of fuel and new red-walled tyres, planning a short stint aimed at regaining track position.

The Andretti driver managed it in stunning fashion as he made up five places from 13th in the two laps following the restart and continued to carve his way back up the field - making contact with Newgarden in the process - and got to seventh before his final pitstop.

But a final finishing position of seventh was not enough to prevent Dixon's fifth title, as Rossi lost sixth to Sebastien Bourdais on the final lap as his tyre performance dropped off.

Marco Andretti and Simon Pagenaud had both looked like podium contenders early in the race but instead finished fourth and fifth ahead of Bourdais and Newgarden.

Indy Lights champion Patricio O'Ward starred on Saturday by making the Fast Six pole shootout on his IndyCar debut but endured a messy first stint and struggled to match the tyre life targets set by Harding Racing.

Despite this, O'Ward put in a strong performance after his first stint to finish ninth ahead of Ganassi's Ed Jones, Santino Ferrucci and Tony Kanaan in his 300th Indycar race.

Jordan King was 13th in his best IndyCar performance to date, climbing from 25th on the grid and making up more places than anyone else in the field.

Two drivers celebrating new contracts in Spencer Pigot and Takuma Sato retired from the race with mechanical problems, with the latter having a spectacular plume of smoke following his RLLR-run machine before mid-distance.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 85 2h02m19.1667s
2 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 85 2.7573s
3 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 85 3.6550s
4 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 85 4.6306s
5 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 85 19.8030s
6 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 85 21.6393s
7 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 85 28.3778s
8 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 85 34.6288s
9 Patricio O'Ward Harding Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 85 42.8662s
10 Ed Jones Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 85 44.2254s
11 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 85 44.6273s
12 Tony Kanaan AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 85 1m00.4138s
13 Jordan King Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 85 1m04.0637s
14 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 85 1m05.4899s
15 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 85 1m12.8026s
16 Pietro Fittipaldi Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 85 1m14.2459s
17 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Dallara/Honda 85 1m15.6462s
18 Carlos Munoz Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 85 1m18.6345s
19 Matheus Leist AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 85 1m22.3819s
20 Colton Herta Harding Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 85 1m23.4673s
21 Max Chilton Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 84 1 Lap
22 Charlie Kimball Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 76 9 Laps
23 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 66 19 Laps
24 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 38 Mechanical
25 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 15 Mechanical

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Scott Dixon 678
2 Alexander Rossi 621
3 Will Power 582
4 Ryan Hunter-Reay 566
5 Josef Newgarden 560
6 Simon Pagenaud 492
7 Sebastien Bourdais 425
8 Graham Rahal 392
9 Marco Andretti 392
10 James Hinchcliffe 391
11 Robert Wickens 391
12 Takuma Sato 351
13 Ed Jones 343
14 Spencer Pigot 325
15 Zach Veach 313
16 Tony Kanaan 312
17 Charlie Kimball 287
18 Matheus Leist 253
19 Max Chilton 223
20 Gabby Chaves 187
21 Ed Carpenter 187
22 Jordan King 175
23 Zachary Claman 122
24 Jack Harvey 103
25 Carlos Munoz 95
26 Pietro Fittipaldi 91
27 Santino Ferrucci 66
28 Rene Binder 61
29 Conor Daly 58
30 Kyle Kaiser 45
31 Patricio O'Ward 44
32 Helio Castroneves 40
33 J.R. Hildebrand 38
34 Stefan Wilson 31
35 Oriol Servia 27
36 Alfonso Celis 23
37 Colton Herta 20
38 Danica Patrick 13
39 Jay Howard 12
40 Sage Karam 10
41 James Davison 10


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