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Will Power fought his way over a still-wet track and won the rain-delayed IZOD IndyCar Series race through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday.

Power, who started the race on Sunday from the pole and survived a series of early-event crashes caused by rain and standing water on the track, led the race on the restart on Monday.

He gave it up to Takuma Sato midway through the Monday portion of the race – which ended up being a timed event – got it back with about five minutes to go and got his victory.

“It was a matter of keeping calm, getting past people without making any mistakes and then creating a gap to be safe,” Power said.

Graham Rahal of Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing was second and Ryan Briscoe, Power’s Team Penske teammate, was third.

“It was kind of the same thing as St. Pete when I won in ‘08,” Rahal said. “That year, Will hit me and I spun, and because of that we got off sequence.  Today, we were lucky that we were quick enough at the end and we were able to keep up with Will but not let Ryan close in.  We had to save a lot of fuel.”

Briscoe said, “We kept our nose clean. There was certainly a lot of havoc going on around me during a lot of the race. At the end, I got passed Dario (Franchitti) going into the hairpin. I was trying to catch (Graham) Rahal, but we were doing about the same lap time. We didn’t change wets on the last stop but we had slightly fresher tires. I was sort of hanging on a bit. It’s a great day for Team Penske.”

Dario Franchitti of Target Chip Ganassi was fourth and Oriol Servia was fifth.

Mike Conway made up a lap to finish sixth and Justin Wilson was seventh. Sato wound up eighth.

The victory was the second of the season for Power, who also has won the poles in all four races this season.

It moved him to the points lead in the series.

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Results Monday of the Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 2.536 mile Sao Paulo Street Circuit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

2. (5) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

3. (4) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

4. (6) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

5. (16) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

6. (9) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

7. (8) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

8. (10) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

9. (11) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

10. (22) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

11. (23) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

12. (3) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

13. (26) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

4. (15) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

15. (24) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 55, Running

16. (18) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 54, Running

17. (14) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 53, Running

18. (2) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 50, Running

19. (20) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 48, Running

20. (13) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 46, Running

21. (7) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 46, Running

22. (21) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 46, Running

23. (17) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 46, Running

24. (25) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 31, Mechanical

25. (19) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 28, Contact

26. (12) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Honda, 20, Contact

Race Statistics

Winners average speed: 67.442

Time of Race: 02:04:05.2964

Margin of victory: 4.6723 seconds

Cautions: 6 for 21 laps

Lead changes: 2 among 3 drivers

Lap Leaders: Power 1 – 25, Sato 26-48, Power 49-55

Point Standings: Power 168, Franchitti 154, Servia 110, Conway 102, Briscoe 101, Kanaan 99, Tagliani 85, Dixon 84, Rahal 82, Sato 80.

(This story will be updated shortly)

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