Will Power won his third Indianapolis GP starting from pole, in a not very exiting race in which Dixon had a great strategy which brought him to P2. Wickens completed the podium, while the leader Newgarden made a mistake which destroyed his options.
This is May! The IndyCar arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis GP was held at the legendary circuit. The action was frenetic at the beginning, in a GP in which the races are not known for having a lot of action, but the situation did not last much as in previous years.
Will Power mantained the pole, but several drivers were side-to-side at the first turns. Hélio Castroneves made contact his team mate Simon Pagenaud, that lost control of his Penske and involuntarily involved Jordan King. At turn 6, Spencer Pigot went out of track and the kerb made him spin, Takuma Sato went to the grass to avoid the ERC.
The yellow flag was on track although no one had damages in their cars. King was the most affected by the incident and had to be helped by a crane. Several drivers pitted.
The race was restarted on lap 5. Robert Wickens overtook Sébastien Bourdais for P2. Power was leading the race, while Josef Newgarden, was P4 and tried to pass the French driver Dale Coyne, but he could not overtake him.
Wickens went for Power and the Canadian opened a gap with the rest. The Canadian, the Australian driver and Bourdais were more than 4 second ahead of the others.
After lap 20, Wickens was ahead of Power with 0.30 seconds more of push-to-pass. That was when both of them pitted. The stop of the Australian was quicker but Wickens with his new soft tires overtook him on the following lap.
Once everyone had stopped, Bourdais was closer to Power. Newgarden saw his P4 was threatened by Alex Rossi. With a different strategy Kyle Kaiser lead the race for a few laps.
On lap 38, after a few minutes of calm and no incidents, the drivers who were leading the race pitted. The positions did not change after the stop. The fight was between Power and Wickens, after a great manoeuvre at turn 1, the Penske driver was leading the race. He was the one who had the faster tires.
On lap 56, Newgarden tried a risky manoeuvre against Bourdais. The current champion went over the kerb and spun, but without touching Dale Coyne. The number 1 Penske stalled the engine on the grass. A new yellow flag was on again and all drivers were regrouped. Newgarden could start on P21.
All drivers stopped for a last time with this yellow flag and Scott Dixon with an alternative strategy was P3 between Wickens and Bourdais.
The restart was on lap 62 and now all of them had the same strategy. On the next lap after the restart, Rossi overtook Bourdais for P4. On lap 64, Dixon overtook Wickens for second place.
Power has won 3 times out of the 5 years that this GP has been held. A victory which makes everyone forget a bad season beginning. Dixon finished second. Wickens got his second podium in the category. Bourdais, Rossi, Castroneves, James Hinchcliffe, Simon Pagenaud, Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato completed the Top 10.
Newgarden is still the leader of the championship standings despite this bad result, but Rossi is only 2 points behind him. Bourdais is third with a difference of 26 points off the leader. He is followed by Dixon and Hinchcliffe.
The Indianapolis GP ends here and on Monday the cars will be driving in the oval, ready for the Indy 500. Qualifying will be held on the 19th and 20th May. The 102nd edition of this great race is scheduled on the 27th May.