Will Power has opened the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series championship with back-to-back street course victories after holding off Justin Wilson by eight-tenths of a second to win today’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Power led 50 of the 100 laps on the streets of the Florida city, taking the lead for good on Lap 73 as KV Racing Technology’s E.J. Viso had to give up the point and head for the pits with gearbox problems.
“I knew [Viso] had to save fuel, but he had a problem,” Power said. “That was close. I didn’t want to nail him from behind, because I knew Wilson was coming. I picked a side and went for it.”
The Australian also opened up a big gap in the championship standings with his victory today. Currently at 103 points overall, he holds a 44-point lead over Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Dario Franchitti, who are all tied for second place with 59 markers each.
I’ll be watching today’s race on TiVo soon and I’ll be blogging along with it, so expect that as a main recap for later tonight here on IndyRacingRevolution.com. In the meantime, here are the race results from round two of the championship.
—–
IZOD IndyCar Series
Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
March 29, 2010
Final results
1. 12-Will Power, Verizon/Team Penske, 100, Running
2. 22-Justin Wilson, Z-Line Designs/Dreyer & Reinbold, 100, Running
3. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske, 100, Running
4. 3-Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, 100, Running
5. 10-Dario Franchitti, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, 100, Running
6. 77-Alex Tagliani, B&W/FAZZT, 100, Running
7. 7-Danica Patrick, GoDaddy.com/Andretti, 100, Running
8. 2-Raphael Matos, HP/Luczo Dragon + De Ferran, 100, Running
9. 67-Graham Rahal, Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing, 100, Running
10. 11-Tony Kanaan, 7-Eleven/Andretti, 100, Running
11. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, IZOD/Andretti, 100, Running
12. 26-Marco Andretti, Venom Energy/Andretti, 100, Running
13. 34-Mario Romancini, H2Go/Conquest Racing, 100, Running
14. 06-Hideki Mutoh, Newman-Haas-Lanigan, 100, Running
15. 14-Vitor Meira, ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing, 100, Running
16. 78-Simona de Silvestro, Stargate Worlds/HVM, -1 lap down, Running
17. 8-E.J. Viso, PDVSA/KV Racing Tech., -3 laps down, Running
18. 9-Scott Dixon, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Contact
19. 24-Mike Conway, Dad’s Root Beer/Dreyer & Reinbold, Contact
20. 4-Dan Wheldon, National Guard/Panther, Contact
21. 32-Mario Moraes, KV Racing Tech., Contact
22. 5-Takuma Sato, KV Racing Tech., Contact
23. 19-Alex Lloyd, Boy Scouts/Dale Coyne Racing, Contact
24. 18-Milka Duno, CITGO/Dale Coyne Racing, Handling
Race Statistics:
Winners average speed: 84.975 m.p.h.
Time of race: 2 hours, 7 minutes, 5.7968 seconds
Margin of victory: .8244 of a second
Cautions: 5 for 23 laps
Lead changes: 10 between 8 drivers
Lap leaders: Power 1-4, Andretti 5, Dixon 6-26, Meira 27-33, Matos 34-36, Franchitti 37-39, Briscoe 40-48, Power 49-66, Meira 67-71, Viso 72, Power 73-100.
Championship standings:
1. Will Power, 103
2. Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Dario Franchitti, 59
5. Raphael Matos, 56
6. Helio Castroneves, 54
7. Ryan Briscoe, 51
8. Vitor Meira, 50
9. Dan Wheldon, 42
10. Danica Patrick, 41.
Next race:
Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, April 11, Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala.
