Power's triumph came in a very different fashion to last year's race though when the Australian led all 90 laps from the pole.

This time around the Penske driver started from ninth on the grid after his qualifying lap was disallowed amid a caution period.

Power managed to work his way up to second before he seized the lead after his final pit stop and held off New Zealand's Scott Dixon for the final 16 laps to win by 3.3709 seconds.

"That was an awesome race," said the 31-year-old from Queensland. "We slowly passed one by one. It was a very good team effort, absolute team effort.

"The strategy was perfect. The stops were perfect. We were quick when we needed to be, put ourselves in a position to win, which I did not think was possible this morning."

Tough

Dixon had to settle for a second runner-up finish in as many races after his second to Brazil's Helio Castroneves in the season-opener at St. Petersburg, Florida, on March 25.

Castroneves finished third ahead of Graham Rahal, with France's Simon Pagenaud fifth while Formula One veteran Rubens Barrichello finished eighth on his second IndyCar start.

"It was a tough race," said Dixon, who had surrendered the lead when he pitted for the last time on lap 66.

"Huge congratulations to Team Penske and obviously Will, coming from so deep in the field to come back and get on top. It shows they have a strong team."

Barrichello said: "It's hard to be happy with a top 10, but starting so far back (14th) and at some points in the race even further back, I think it was a positive that I was able to work my way back through the field."