Milwaukee – Race: Bourdais dominates the competition

The qualifications for the Milwaukee race do not resemble the rest of the season. In pole position is young Josef Newgarden ahead of Ryan Briscoe, standing in at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and rookie Sage Karam.

The championship leaders are far on the starting grid, with Juan Pablo Montoya 8th, Scott Dixon 10th, Will Power 14th, and Helio Castroneves last.

On the French side, Sébastien Bourdais is 11th, Simon Pagenaud is 17th, and Tristan Vautier is 20th, just behind the Monegasque Stefano Coletti.

The Young Guard

From the start, Newgarden and Briscoe are very comfortable on the 1-mile (1.6 km) short track and easily maintain their leading positions. Bourdais and Montoya move up to 3rd and 4th place during this long green flag period.

The Americans Sage Karam and Graham Rahal make their mark and show incisiveness in their overtakes or in defending their positions.

During his first pit stop, Ryan Briscoe suffers from a hydraulic lifting problem with his car and loses several places. After the second round of refueling, Scott Dixon takes the lead ahead of Newgarden and Bourdais.

The decisive moment

On the 115th lap out of 250, James Jakes suffers a Honda engine failure, causing the first yellow flag. Most of the competitors decide to pit again, except for a handful of drivers including Sébastien Bourdais, who finds himself leading the race.

During the restart, Ryan Briscoe loses control of his car and crashes into Will Power. Both Australians retire from the race, and Power once again loses significant points in the championship.

Thanks to his choice, Bourdais increases his lead in the race. The pursuers hinder each other in their battles, allowing the Frenchman to have up to a 1-lap advantage over all the other drivers due to staggered strategies.

With 30 laps to go, Justin Wilson also suffers a failure of his Honda engine. During the race neutralization, Sébastien Bourdais chooses once again to stay on track while most of his pursuers opt for new tires. At the restart, Helio Castroneves quickly moves up to second position with his fresh tires, followed by Graham Rahal, who had also chosen the option of a pit stop.

Despite all the efforts of his pursuers, Sébastien Bourdais clinches the 34th victory of his career.

The championship

With this victory, Bourdais takes back the 6th place overall from the American Marco Andretti. Still leading, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya now has a 54-point lead over Scott Dixon, which is slightly more than a victory. Graham Rahal is in 3rd place with the same number of points as Helio Castroneves, while Will Power drops 3 places to 5th, 70 points behind the leader.