DARIO FRANCHITTI surged back to the summit of the IndyCar championship standings with a thrilling victory in an incident-packed race in Toronto.

The 36-year-old from Bathgate has always done well at the Canadian circuit and capitalised on his knowledge of the track to avoid being caught up in the litany of accidents which befell several of his rivals, including Tomas Scheckter, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan.

Franchitti also benefited from perfect pit-stops and he and his Ganassi crew saw off Castroneves, following an exciting joust between the two drivers, prior to the Scot amassing a decisive lead over his closest challengers, Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, and his team-mate, Scott Dixon, who missed out on a podium position as Franchitti sped to his third victory of the season in the IRL Series.

The result restores his lead in the title race, though he is only two points in front of the defending champion, Dixon. Mark Webber believes he is now firmly in the hunt for the F1 title after finally breaking his victory duck.

The 32-year-old screamed with joy, and perhaps relief, in taking the chequered flag at the Nurburgring after the German Grand Prix.

Not even a drive-through penalty for playing dodgems with Rubens Barrichello off the line denied Webber his long-overdue moment in the sun at the 130th attempt.

It secured him a place in the sport's record books as no driver with a win to their name has taken so long to get a maiden triumph under their belts.

Leading home a third Red Bull one-two of the season, with Sebastian Vettel second on this occasion, the duo are 221/2 and 21 points respectively behind Jenson Button, who could only finish fifth.