St Petersburg IndyCar: Montoya leads Pagenaud home in Penske 1-2

Will Power had been due to start the race from pole position, but was forced to withdraw on Sunday due to nausea.

Having since been diagnosed with a mild concussion from his Friday practice shunt, he was replaced by Oriol Servia.

That meant Simon Pagenaud, as second quickest qualifier, started first and spent the early laps leading from Montoya.

The French driver held a comfortable, five-second lead heading into the first round of pitstops, but a series of quick laps meant Montoya was able to reduce the gap to just 0.7s.

On lap 47, Marco Andretti triggered the first caution of the day, a spin on the exit of Turn 1 following a bold overtake attempt on Luca Filippi left him facing the wrong way.

When the pitlane opened, the whole field filed in except for Conor Daly and Tony Kanaan, who opted to run an alternative strategy.

The decision vaulted the pair to the front of the field.

When the green flag waved 10 laps later, Kanaan attempted a dive down the inside of Turn 1, but couldn't make the move on Daly stick on the slippery track surface.

Montoya, meanwhile, snuck past Pagenaud into third place in what would prove the crucial move.

Seconds later Carlos Munoz triggered a huge accident when he clipped the rear of Graham Rahal, spinning him into the wall, with another seven drivers involved as the circuit was blocked.

Kanaan pitted during that caution period to leave Daly up front, leading from Montoya and Pagenaud.

On the restart, the 2015 St Petersburg winner snuck past Daly into Turn 1 for the race lead.

Daly pitted first on Lap 80, but a front wing fault just a handful of laps later meant he had to pit again and was out of contention for the win.

Montoya maintained his advantage over Pagenaud in the pitstops to lead the Team Penske one-two.

A late move by Hunter-Reay on faster red Firestone tyres allowed him to snatch a podium place from Helio Castroneves.

Mikhail Aleshin, Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon, Munoz, Kanaan and Charlie Kimball completed the top 10.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Alexander Rossi finished the highest of the rookies in 12th, ahead of Daly in 13th, Spencer Pigot in 15th and former Marussia driver Max Chilton in 17th.

Servia finished 18th in Power's car, delayed in the mid-race melee, one place ahead of Schmidt-Peterson returnee James Hinchcliffe, who was lost ground due to a first-lap incident.

RESULTS - 110 LAPS:

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP: