Canberra - AFP
Australia's Will Power won his sixth IndyCar race of the year on Sunday, capturing the inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore to move within five points of the series lead. Power completed 75 laps around the 2.04-mile, 12-turn street course in 2 hours, 2 minutes and 19.4988 seconds to defeat runner-up Oriol Servia of Spain by 10.2096 seconds with Brazil's Tony Kanaan third. Scotland's Dario Franchitti was fourth, allowing him to maintain his season points lead over Power. But defending series champion Franchitti, whose lead was 50 points when the day began, now has a margin of only 507-502. Three races remain in the IndyCar season, the next of them in two weeks at Japan's Twin Ring Motegi road course. The championship quest concludes with races next month at Kentucky and Las Vegas. "That was the toughest race I have done all year," Power said. "I'm just exhausted, but that was a championship run." A major incident on a hairpin turn halfway into the race collected more than half the field but Power was clear of the mess and took advantage after a solid restart to claim the victory. Power earlier won this season at Alabama, Brazil, Texas, Edmonton, and last week at Sonoma. Four of those triumphs were on road circuits, where he has been most successful. Franchitti has won twice each on ovals and road courses.