Will Power Wins at St. Petersburg, Extends Indy Lead

Will Power seems to be on a roll this season, as the Australian driver recorded his second win in a row in the 2010 IndyCar series, taking the chequered flag of the St Petersburg race less than a second ahead of Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson.

Penske could have had all its drivers on the overall podium hadn't it been for Wilson, as Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves crossed the finish line in 3rd and 4th respectively.

Power dominated the St Petersburg weekend in style, scoring fastest times in both practice sessions and Saturday qualy, and was not at all distracted by the Sunday race delay (due to intense rain). The Aussie controlled the race through the majority of the laps and, as close as Wilson was to him in the closing laps of the race, his leading position was never in danger.

Early incidents in the race saw Milka Duno, Mike Conway and Dario Franchitti experience spins due to the fact that the track was not fully dried. Power lost his leading position early in the race, when he was overtook by Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon, but managed to emerge on top of the field again by Lap 19.

Several racing incidents then happened on Monday afternoon, with Takuma Sato crashing into the wall on Lap 22, Dan Wheldon suffering from a broken suspension and crashing into the tire barrier on Lap 46 and Ernesto Viso experiencing gearbox problems while leading the race (thanks to some clever pit stop strategy).

Additionally, Simona de Silvestro was tapped from behind by Graham Rahal, causing another yellow flag, while Scott Dixon recorded his first DNF of the season when crashing into the wall in Turn 9.

From that point on, it was pretty clear that the fight for a race win would go on solely between Power and Wilson, with the latter clearly unable to get the edge over the Penske driver. Completing the Top 5, after the other two Penske drivers, was Ganassi's Dario Franchitti, who managed to recover from a puncture midway through the race to score his first Top 5 of the season.

The Top 10 was completed by Alex Tagliani, Danica Patrick, Raphael Matos, Graham Rahal and Tony Kanaan.

In the overall classification, Power now extended his championship lead to 44 points from second placed Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dario Franchitti and Justin Wilson (all tied at 59 points).