Scott Dixon’s struggles continued with fifth and seventh placings in the IndyCar doubleheader in Toronto today.
The New Zealanders swept the two races in Canada last year to spark his season and launch a late run that took him to his third driver’s championship.
But there was no repeat of those heroics today.
Saturday rain forced officials to abandon racing and put both races on Sunday, meaning a gruelling day for drivers.
In the opening race France’s Sebastien Bourdais ended a seven year drought to claim his 32nd IndyCar win, as he dominated from start to finish 3.34.08s ahead of championship front-runner Helio Castroneves.
Tony Kanaan finished third for the second consecutive race in the No 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, while teammate Dixon ended up fifth after qualifying 12th.
Dixon started the second race from the fourth row of the grid and quickly moved up to fourth.
He ran there for most of the race until a late pit stop dropped him to 10th as the race was on hold following a multi-car pileup.
The resumption effectively turned into a three lap sprint where Dixon was bale to improve three places to seventh.
Mike Conway earned his second victory of the season by holding off Kanaan for a 3.54.18s win.
The series now moves to Lexington, Ohio for the Honda Indy 200 on August 3.
Results race 1 - 65 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 1h15m44.3232s
2. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy +3.3408s
3. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy +4.8655s
4. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda +5.4271s
5. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy +12.5472s
6. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda +15.5804s
7. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy +28.6978s
8. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda +31.1677s
9. Will Power Penske/Chevy +33.1220s
10. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda +33.7258s
11. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda +39.0741s
12. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy +43.3621s
13. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda +58.3644s
14. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda +58.4969s
15. Mike Conway Carpenter/Chevy +58.9383s
16. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda +1m01.4298s
17. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda +1m01.7675s
18. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy -1 lap
19. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy -1 lap
20. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda -2 laps
Retirements:
Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 39 laps
Luca Filippi Rahal/Honda 17 laps
Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 10 laps
Results race 2 - 56 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time/Gap
1. Mike Conway Carpenter/Chevy 1h20m35.5420s
2. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy +3.5418s
3. Will Power Penske/Chevy +5.1545s
4. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy +5.4857s
5. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda +6.6210s
6. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda +7.8701s
7. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy +7.9350s
8. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda +10.1765s
9. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy +12.0212s
10. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda +15.7853s
11. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy +15.8671s
12. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy +16.2205s
13. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda +20.9127s
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda +22.6140s
15. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda +29.2715s
16. Luca Filippi Rahal/Honda +46.4382s
17. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda -4 laps*
18. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda -4 laps
19. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy -4 laps
* Not running at finish
Retirements:
Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 50 laps
Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 49 laps
Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 47 laps**
Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 11 laps
** Running again at finish
