Juan Pablo Montoya wins IndyCar's season-opening St Petersburg Grand Prix
Last Updated: 29/03/15 11:51pm
Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya held off reigning series champion Will Power of Australia over the final 27 laps to capture the season-opening IndyCar St Petersburg Grand Prix.
Power, the defending race champion, led 75 of the 110 laps over the 1.8-mile, 14-turn Florida street course but lost the lead to the former F1 racer on an exchange of pit stops on laps 81 and 82.
In a battle of Penske Racing team-mates, Montoya denied pole-sitter Power on a 10th-tun pass attempt in lap 101 where the cars made contact. Montoya went on to win by .9930 of a second.
"He was way too far back and I wasn't going to give him the position," said Montoya. "It was a really good day."
Power called his late attempt to retake the lead "kind of optimistic but it wasn't impossible. It was my only chance. He was phenomenally fast."
Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner who left US open-wheel racing for F1 in 2001, moved to US stock cars in 2006 and stayed there until returning to IndyCar last year.
It was only the second victory for the 39-year-old Colombian since his return after a victory from the pole last July at Pocono.
Montoya had not won a road-course IndyCar event since 1999 in Vancouver.
Brazil's Tony Kanaan finished third with two more Penske drivers - three-time St. Petersburg winner Helio Castroneves of Brazil and France's Simon Pagenaud, in fourth and fifth.
