Team Penske's Will Power survived a wet and rain-delayed Indy Sao Paulo 300 taking his second win of the season.Although the event was scheduled to take place in a less rainy period in comparison with 2010 season, poor visibility on the 2.536-mile sambadrome caused by persistent heavy rain and approaching dusk forced the postponement of the race after the first 14 laps had been completed. When the race restarted the following day, there was only 79 minutes available for racing that, enough time for Will Power to grab victory over Japanese Takuma Sato who was obliged to pit for fuel 5 laps before the end of the race.
Although Pole-Sitter Power was leading the race during the restart of the race on Lap 15, it was KV Racing-Lotus driver Takuma Sato who overtook him on Lap 26 and began to pull away through the middle part of the race exploiting exploited his full-wet setup. Yet Sato's dreams of a maiden IndyCar Series victory stumbled when his team left him on track during a caution on Lap 35 hoping that the yellow flag could help him to stretch his fuel to the finish, while most of the field made their final stop for fuel. But, Sato's impressive run ended when he had to pit for fuel with less than five minutes to go and as Power took the lead again and started dancing his victory samba by 4.672 seconds over Ganassi Racing's Graham Rahal.
Power commented:
"That was an awesome race. Really happy to get the Verizon car in victory lane again. Four poles and two wins... I slowly started picking people off. It was a matter of keeping calm and pulling a gap to stay safe."
Power's teammate Ryan Briscoe finished third and Dario Franchitti, who also recovered from a long slide in Turn 1 on Lap 33 finished fourth. Franchitti, who is now 14 points back in second in the championship standings heading to defend his Indianapolis 500 title commented:
"After me making a mistake on the restart, I'm very proud of my Target guys for the front wing change and getting us back out there. We came out of this with a fourth-place result so I'll take it."
Oriol Servia's amazing start to the season with his No. 2 Telemundo car for Newman/Haas Racing, continued as the Spaniard ex-champcar driver completed the top-5.
Mike Conway made up a lap to finish sixth in the No. 27 Window World Cares car for Andretti Autosport. Justin Wilson, driving the No. 22 HP/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car, was seventh.
KV Racing-Lotus looked like the team's breakthrough victory was on the cards on Sao Paulo, as both Sato and E.J. Viso had visibly the fastest cars in the field. While most teams retained their dry setup, KV rolled the dice and tailored its cars to perform optimal in the rain, which worked to their advantage for most of the restarted event. Sato's race lead was stretched to as much as six seconds, while Viso stormed through the pack from 11th to second at one point.
Yet, team's luck ended by the end of the race.
Sato's late stop, combined with running long into turn 1 on Lap 51, finished 23 seconds behind Power in eighth. But KV Racing-Lotus suffered another blow when Viso, who had moved over to defend his line on more than one occasion, was black flagged while running second. After running at the sharp end of the field, Viso's 13th-place finish was a hard pill to swallow.
Rookies James Hinchcliffe (No. 06 Sprott Newman/Haas Racing) and JR Hildebrand (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing) completed the top 10. It was Hildebrand's first top 10, while Hinchcliffe posted his second in a row.
Race's greatest disappointment was all the Brazilian drivers which failed not only to take victory and resurrect Ayrton Senna's racing legacy but even to have a significant performance during their home race. Vitor Meira finished 17th, Helio Castroneves 21st, Tony Kanaan 22nd, Ana Beatriz 24rth and Raphael Matos back in 25th.
