Will Power takes his first Indy 500 victory

Will Power has finally made it, he has won the 102^nd edition of Indianapolis 500. The Australian has dominated during the second part of the race, crossing the checker flag with 3 seconds of advantage over Ed Carpenter and 4 ahead of Scott Dixon.

Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing) had the honor to start from pole position, the local kept the lead at the start of the race. He was very solid in the lead until lap 64 when he was beaten by Tony Kanaan (A.J. Foyt Entreprises).

Kanaan, who already won in 2013 he made a good start up to seventh place. As race was on, the Brazilian was overtaking several drivers until reach the second place after the second pit-stop sequence.

He took the was able to reach the lead after the restart of a Caution caused by an accident between 2017 race winner, Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) and James Davidson (A.J. Foyt Enterprises with Belardi) who made contact at turn 3.

A few laps later, the second Caution came out. Best rookie finish of 2017 edition, Ed Jones (Chip Ganassi Racing) crashed out at turn 3. The UAE driver lost completely the control of his Honda machine.

That helped Carpenter to re-take the lead at the restart. But the owner of “ECR” saw how one of his drivers, Danica Patrick, crashed out like Jones did. Patrick today has completed his last race of his racing career, she leaves a very solid history for women in this sport.

Meanwhile, Kanaan did not wait to lead the race as he overtook Carpenter at the restart, while Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport) impressed all of us taking 12^th place after starting from 32^nd position.

Half through of the race, the leaders were set to make his third pitstop. But some of other drivers were already on another strategy like Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) who took the lead provisionally.

After this third pit-stop sequence, Will Power (Team Penske) took the lead of the race, ahead of Carpenter. Penske driver was dominating at all, and he quickly build a gap of 4 seconds over the American.

The fourth sequence of pit-stop was just before Sébastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing) crash. The 4-time Champ Cart champion, lost the control of his car at turn 4, crashing with the wall after some spins.

At the re-start, once again Rossi gave us a boost of entertainment as he went from 9^th to 6^th in only 2 corners. The American overtook Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing), Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport), Sage Karam (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) and the lapped car of Spencer Pigot by the outside from turn 1 to 2.

Battling for his fourth win in Indianapolis, Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) crashed out with 50 laps remaining. The Brazilian crashed at the entering of the pit lane area, the same place where a few laps later, Sage Karam crashed, proving that this new aero-kit is it so hard to drive.

That yellow created two ways to finish the race -in strategy terms. Dixon, like Oriol Servià (Rahal Lettreman Lanigan Racing) or Stefan Wilson (Andretti Autosport) stopped with 40 laps remaining, not enough to reach the checker flag because fuel mileage in this race is around 33-36 laps.

The other strategy was the one that Power, Carpenter and Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske) were following, stop between laps 170-180.

This situation gave to Oriol Servià the lead of the race. The Catalan was saving fuel while he was waiting for a yellow to be able to cross the checker flag without more stops. But this never ever happened despite a yellow flag caused by Kanaan.

Therefore, with four laps remaining Will Power took the lead of the race and he dominated until the checker flag. An historic win for Power one of the best rated drivers in the field.

Local driver Ed Carpenter was second, ahead of Dixon and Rossi. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) completed the top5.

This win helps Power to reach the lead in driver’s championship standings. The Aussie is on top with 274 points, eleven more than team mate Josef Newgarden. Tied in points in third position are Dixon and Rossi who have 31 points less than the Penske guy.

A solid race as well for Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, who was struggling with race results this season, now with a 6^th place finish he is back in the championship fight in 8^th place in the standings.

Now the drivers will fly to Detroit, for the double-heather at the motor city next week.