Josef Newgarden has taken victory in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, after team-mate Will Power suffered a puncture in the latter stages of the race despite leading 60 laps from the start.
Power comfortably led from the start and utterly dominated the majority of the race, before yet another bout of bad luck scuppered his chances of returning to victory lane.
During the second and final caution period of the race Power was sat in second position behind Charlie Kimball who had elected not to pit under caution, with Power only a few laps away from resuming his lead.
However, as Kimball pitted and Power assumed the lead his team suddenly noticed a loss in pressure on his left-rear tyre.
Despite being instructed to pit Power initially stayed out, before pressure began to mount from team-mate Newgarden.
While the 2013 champion begrudgingly pitted and resumed way down in P17, Newgarden was left fending off the Ganassi of Scott Dixon who had been the only real threat to Penske and Chevrolet all race long.
Eventually Newgarden crossed the line a second ahead of Dixon, with reigning champion Simon Pagenaud a further second down the road in third after a rather lonely race for the Frenchman.
Helio Castroneves was once again unable to translate a front-row start into a podium visit, with the veteran losing ground steadily throughout the race and eventually coming home a very distant P4.
Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Alexander Rossi enjoyed a tremendous race for Andretti Autosport, putting aside his frustrations from qualifying after starting P18 to rise through the order in an almost Bourdais-esque fashion to finish a well-deserved fifth.
James Hinchcliffe was unable to repeat his successes from Long Beach, reaching the chequered flag in P6 after a frenetic start to the race.
The Canadian racer banged wheels with Ryan Hunter-Reay on the opening lap, causing light damage to Hunter-Reay’s front-wing which resulted in the first full course caution for debris at Turn 4.
Tony Kanaan’s weekend steadily improved with P7, ending the race only just ahead of Sebastien Bourdais.
The Frenchman, who has managed to maintain his lead in the championship by only six points to Dixon and seven points to Newgarden, was lucky to avoid the debris from Hinchcliffe’s car during the opening lap of the race.
Takuma Sato and Mikhail Aleshin rounded out the top ten, with Hunter-Reay eventually finishing in P11 following a disrupted conclusion to his race.
Andretti Autosport’s woes started early when Marco Andretti was prevented from lining up for the green flag at the start.
As the field completed their formation laps Andretti peeled off into the pits with an electrical issue striking his car, placing him three laps down before the issue was rectified to allow him to finally start the race.
Meanwhile Spencer Pigot caused the second and final caution period of the race, after spinning on the exit of Turn 5 as very light and intermittent rain briefly fell over the Barber Motorsports Park.
The ECR racer luckily avoided contact with the wall and eventually finished the race P20 and a lap off the leaders.
Discussion about this post