Can Power win wild Indy season opener in Brazil

Yellow flags and rain fell at just the right times for Mike Bliss Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the result was his first Worldwide Series victory in 83 races.

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Will Power's late pass of Ryan Hunter-Reay gave him the lead and the win for the first IndyCar race of the season on the new street course in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The race seemed to be cursed from the beginning. In the first turn of the first lap there was a five-car pileup that left Mario Moraes' car on top of Marco Andretti's. Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves were also caught up in it.

The wreck was caused by poor visibility from a cloud of concrete dust. Track officials used diamond grinders Saturday night to fix problems with the concrete but a lot of dust remained.

Power beat Hunter-Reay by 1.858 seconds when the race ended at the two-hour time-limit with only 61 of the 75 scheduled laps completed on the 2.6-mile, 11-turn Anhembi temporary circuit.

Will Power's late pass of Ryan Hunter-Reay gave him the lead and the win for the first IndyCar race of the season on the new street course in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The race seemed to be cursed from the beginning. In the first turn of the first lap there was a five-car pileup that left Moraes' car on top of Marco Andretti's. Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves were also caught up in it.

The wreck was caused by poor visibility from a cloud of concrete dust. Track officials used diamond grinders Saturday night to fix problems with the concrete but a lot of dust remained.

Brendan Gaughan, who also reaped the benefits of the caution with about 50 to go, finished second.

Just before the rains fell, Gaughan had actually took the lead away from Bliss for a total of four laps. But Bliss came back, recaptured the lead with 33 laps to go and a lap later, the rains came.

Carl Edwards, who started the race from the pole and second in the standings behind Busch, finished 10th. He had led 37 laps early.

That enabled Busch to stretch his lead over Edwards in the standings to 73 points.

The victory was the second of Bliss’ Nationwide career. His other victory also came at Lowe’s, that in 2004.

Gaughan, a rookie, had his best career finish in the series.

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Alonso marks Ferrari debut with Bahrain victory

Alonso marks Ferrari debut with Bahrain GP win to lead team to 1-2 start finish

Fernando Alonso won the season-opening Bahrain Formula One  Grand Prix and led a Ferrari one-two in a dream debut with the Italian glamour team on Sunday.

In a race led for more than two thirds of the distance by Germany's Sebastian Vettel before the Red Bull slowed and was reeled in, the Spaniard laid down a marker for the season with his 22nd career victory.

"There is no better way to start the relationship," declared the double world champion after collecting the winner's trophy and a bottle of non-alcoholic local fizz. "I am with the best team in the world."

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Brazilian Felipe Massa was overtaken by Alonso at the first corner and finished runner-up, 16 seconds behind, on his race return from life-threatening head injuries suffered in Hungary last July.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, completed the podium for McLaren, 23.1 behind Alonso, with Vettel slipping to fourth after starting on pole.

"It's a pity but what can you do. All in all it's been positive all weekend apart from the failure," said Vettel.

"Everything was running smoothly, but I lost power with about 20 laps to go, we are not sure what it was yet, but it wasn't good. Luckily I could continue and finish fourth but we should have won really."

Affected by an exhaust failure, Vettel was soon after passed by Massa, who claimed second on his return to racing after a life-threatening crash last July in Hungary.

"We were lucky with the problems of Sebastian Vettel to pass," Massa said. "I'm very happy. It's also the best start of my season. I rode through the race normal(ly), with very good pace. Thanks to God, I'm fine."

Lewis Hamilton overtook Vettel at the same spot as the McLaren driver finished third ahead of his Red Bull opponent.

"We had control of the race today and things we were on top of the strategy — everything was running smoothly," Vettel said. "We should have won today. It cost us a lot."

Nico Rosberg was more than 40 seconds behind Alonso in fifth place. Schumacher, his Mercedes teammate and a seven-time champion, came sixth in his first race in three years after starting seventh in his first race.

"All in all, I have a very positive feeling after my first race," Schumacher said through a translator. "We came in roughly where we expected to come in."

Massa pulled up to Vettel on the same stretch before going around last year's championship runner-up at the first corner, where Hamilton passed the German driver four laps later.

Massa had to lay up over the last 30 laps to save fuel and his tires, and Hamilton said he just ran out of laps as he pushed to catch the Brazilian.

"We had a good day. Our race pace was a lot stronger (than expected)," Hamilton said. "If I wasn't behind Nico for the first half of the race, I could have been closer to the front."

Schumacher's new team, Mercedes, showed it still has some work to do to provide him with a car worthy of an eighth title. Schumacher finished 3.9 seconds behind Rosberg.

Defending champion Jenson Button finished seventh for McLaren, while Mark Webber of Red Bull was eighth.

BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX (Sakhir) - Alonso and Ferrari romp to victory in Bahrain - Part 1

BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX (Sakhir) - Alonso and Ferrari romp to victory in Bahrain