Will Power drove to victory in a hard-fought street fight in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opening race of the Verizon IndyCar Series season.
The Aussie past pole winner Takuma Sato on the 33rd of 110 laps and wasn’t to be denied after that as he dominated from then on, to gain his 22nd career victory and second triumph on the 1.8-mile street course.
His margin of victory was 1.9475 seconds.
Ryan Hunter-Reay finished second and he was followed by Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon.
Simon Pagenaud earned fifth place.
Sixth through 10th were Tony Kanaan, Sato, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and Ryan Briscoe.
Results - 110 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time/Gap
1. Will Power Penske/Chevy 2h06m57.6288s
2. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda +1.9475s
3. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy +7.8716s
4. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy +15.9685s
5. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda +17.3937s
6. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy +20.3882s
7. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda +20.8561s
8. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda +21.0622s
9. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda +21.5544s
10. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy +23.9897s
11. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy +34.4041s
12. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda +34.9969s
13. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy +35.3526s
14. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda +38.9881s
15. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy +40.3350s
16. Mike Conway Carpenter/Chevy +40.9140s
17. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda +44.6244s
18. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda +47.5637s
19. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda +1 lap
Retirements:
Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 108 laps
Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 83 laps
Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 82 laps
