Scott Dixon admitted he got “lucky” after scoring his second victory in as many races at the start of the IndyCar season.
The Ganassi driver hit the front thanks to a mid-race caution period, which occured before several drivers had made their second pit stops. Among them was Will Power, who had led the race convincingly from pole position up to that point.Power had to pit during the caution period, which dropped him far back into the pack. Graham Rahal inherited the lead, but Dixon was poised to take over and duly did. He led Rahal home comfortably by almost 20 seconds.
The caution was triggered by Oliver Askew, who spun his McLaren SP into the barrier at the final corner. That ended a race which had begun promisingly with a fifth place start for the new driver and team.
Simon Pagenaud rose from 20th on the grid to take the final podium position, close behind Rahal. Colton Herta came in fourth despite sliding off at one point and having to make his way back onto the circuit.
Rinus VeeKay, the 19-year old Asian F3 champion, impressed in his second IndyCar start. He collected fifth place, going some way towards making amends for his crash-strewn debut in Texas four weeks ago.
Marcus Ericsson came in sixth ahead of Josef Newgarden and Patricio O’Ward. Despite losing time with a slow pit stop in which his engine stalled, Santino Ferrucci recovered to take ninth ahead of Takuma Sato.
Adding insult to injury, Power also suffered a slow pit stop, dropping the 2014 champion to 20th place at the flag.
2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
