PAGENAUD DOMINATES HONDA INDY TORONTO

Simon Pagenaud dominated Honda Indy Toronto – Photo: LAT

Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud dominated Indycar’s stopover in Canada with a near-perfect weekend at the Honda Indy Toronto.

Claiming his third win of the year, the pole-sitter led 80 of the 85 laps at Exhibition Place and held back five-time series champion Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) to take his first victory on the streets of Toronto.

“We took off and the car handled really well,” said Pagenaud.

“We definitely had an advantage on the tire wear. I knew we had a really good race car. We were able to match the Honda power (of Dixon) pretty well; (it) helped us to perform even better, so thanks to Chevy.”

Dixon’s efforts to get pas the Frenchman were hampered after contact with the wall early in the race, resulting in him finishing the race with a misaligned steering wheel.

“I made a mistake, a pretty big mistake, probably around Lap 12 or 15 where I hit the inside wall on (Turn) 9,” said Dixon.

“Bent the suspension pretty bad. I thought I had a (tire) puncture.”

Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi completed the podium, ahead of series points leader Josef Newgarden (Team Penske).

Australian Will Power collided with Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti early in the race.

“I got a good run on Graham (Rahal) and when I realized he was turning into the corner aggressively,” said Power after the race.

“I tried to back out of it. I wish I didn’t go for it that early. I feel bad for him. It was just a mistake and I didn’t realize someone was on the outside of him. Then, I just made a bad mistake there at the end.”

“We just locked the rears up there. I have been having problems all weekend long with locking up the rears.”

“I feel bad for the Verizon team. We had a reasonable comeback going, all the way up to eighth, I think.”

“That wasn’t the way I should be driving. But I know how to come back from this. I just need to mentally keep in the right place and keep doing what I know.”

Power would recover from the incident, before burying his Team Penske car in the same tyre wall on the final lap.

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