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James Hinchcliffe wins an exciting race on the last second

Fourth race of the IndyCar Series. James Hinchcliffe has won his second race of the season, after two consecutive retirements, in front of Takuma Sato, new leader of the championship.

After the start, Hunter-Reay kept the pole, meanwhile Tony Kanaan has overtaken to Viso for third position, after a bad start from Viso. Will Power started to gain positions at the back. The first caution period came after seven laps, because of mechanicals problems in the car of Ana Beatriz. Castroneves, Kanaan and Power pitted on that moment. Will Power was already 11th on the lap 19, but his car went into flames and he had to retire, causing a new period of Pace Car. Most of drivers pitted on this lap, and Sebastien Bourdais became the new lider. Once we had the green flag again, some incidents (Castroneves, Rahal and Carpenter) caused a new yellow flag.

On the restart, Helio Castroneves was hit and he spun, going back to the last position after a new pit stop for him. Bourdais and Newgarden opened a big gap over Hunter-Reay, but they had to pit on lap 34, when Sato overtook Hunter-Reay and became the new lider of the race. Another period of caution on lap 38, because of debris on Turn 2 (from Graham Rahal). Takuma Sato pitted and Hunter-Reay, Kanaan, Franchitti, Dixon and Servià were at Top 5.

There was an impressing duel between Servià and Andretti on the restart, but there was a new yellow flag caused by a melee with Castroneves, Kimball, Pagenaud and Hildebrand. The race was restarted once more, and Andretti wen up to the first position after some spectaculars overtakes, Servià followed his steps and he came to 2nd place. The Spaniard pitted on the next lap, just before a new caution, because of mechanicals problems for Tony Kanaan. After that, all drivers had done their final stop, and everybody was going to the end.

Takuma Sato was the leader at the end, followed by James Hinchcliffe. Newgarden passed Hinchcliffe for second, and tried to do the same with Sato, this fight allowed to Hinchcliffe, Andretti and Servià to get close to the leaders. Hinchcliffe recovered the second place, and the battle with Sato last to the final corner, when Hinchcliffe overtook Sato. Behind them, Newgarden and Andretti were side by side on the last corner, but Josef made a mistake and Oriol Servià gain his position and used a PTP at the main straight to overtake Andretti for third, but he was not able to do it for 36 thousands of a second.

 

P Driver Dif.
1 James Hinchcliffe
2 Takuma Sato +0.3463
3 Marco Andretti +1.1376
4 Oriol Servià +1.1745
5 Josef Newgarden +1.6516
6 EJ Viso +2.8119
7 Dario Franchitti +3.5961
8 Simona de Silvestro +4.2772
9 Simon Pagenaud +7.6331
10 Charlie Kimball +9.0265
11 Ryan Hunter-Reay +9.5135
12 Alex Tagliani +10.4393
13 Helio Castroneves +11.1234
14 Sebastien Bourdais +13.6406
15 JR Hildebrand +13.7377
16 Tristan Vautier +14.3517
17 James Jakes +19.8585
18 Scott Dixon +29.4261
19 Sebastian Saavedra +54.7223
20 Justin Wilson +2L
21 Tony Kanaan +3L
22 Graham Rahal +4L
23 Ed Carpenter +4L
DF Will Power +58L
DF Ana Beatriz +69L