Indycar – Dixon beats Power, Pagenaud 3rd ahead of Bourdais

The rain threatened to return to Mid-Ohio but the race was finally able to be contested in the dry. Will Power (Team Penske) retained the advantage at the start ahead of Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing) and simon pagenaud (Schmidt-Hamilton). The latter two fell in the standings by stopping a lap before the leader who retained the advantage after the burst of first stops. Although the Frenchman was able to regain his position, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 gradually fell in the standings to finish in an anonymous 17th place. Will Power was then followed by Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) during his second stop but it was the New Zealander who emerged in the lead just ahead of Will Power and Sébastien Bourdais (Dragon Racing).

Scott Dixon retained the advantage until the finish after seeing the race run without any yellow flag and thus won for the second consecutive time after his success in 2011. Will Power failed in second place but this result is still positive since he regains the lead of the Championship with five points ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) who retired following engine problems. Sébastien Bourdais could not resist the pressure from Simon Pagenaud who completed the podium in front of his compatriot. James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport) was behind at the start of the race but the Canadian achieved a good top five finish ahead of Tony Kanaan (KV Racing Technology), the two drivers having adopted the best strategy by making three stops.

Discover the report of theIndyCar Series on the Mid-Ohio circuit in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.