Brazilian Cristiano da Matta has won the opening race of the Cart season for the second consecutive year.

Da Matta piloted his Newman-Haas Lola-Toyota home 1.67 seconds ahead of Scotland's Dario Franchitti at the Monterrey Grand Prix in Mexico.

Da Matta carried over his fine form from the end of last season, when he won the races in Australia and California, leading for 52 of the 85 laps to complete a hat-trick of victories.

"The whole Newman-Haas team had a good off-season and we were really anxious to come into the first race and see if we could keep it going," said da Matta.

Collision

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and it's good to get this off our back and know after five months we can still do it."

Da Matta built a lead of 18 seconds over Franchitti at one point and even managed to stay in control despite some right front wing damage caused by contact with Japan's Shinji Nakano early in the race.

"I couldn't believe the wing was still there," said da Matta. "I just kept on it."

Da Matta's Newman-Haas team-mate and compatriot, Christian Fittipaldi, was third.

Yellow flags

Mexico's Michel Jourdain sent the home crowed into raptures as he finished fourth, with Canada's Alex Tagliani fifth.

Da Matta held a 10-second lead after the final set of pit stops.

But his advantage disappeared with six laps to run when Tony Kanaan and Tora Takagi collided on lap 79.

The field was forced to run under yellow flags for three laps.

But when the race resumed Franchitti was blocked by Tagaki and Da Matta escaped to claim his second Monterrey victory in a row.

Monterrey Grand Prix results:

1 Cristiano da Matta (Bra) Lola-Toyota
2 Dario Franchitti (GB) Reynard-Honda
3 Christian Fittipaldi (Bra) Lola-Toyota
4 Michel Jourdain (Mex) Lola-Ford
5 Alex Tagliani (Can) Reynard-Ford
6 Scott Dixon (NZ) Lola-Toyota
7 Patrick Carpentier (Can) Reynard-Ford
8 Paul Tracy (Can) Reynard-Honda
9 Max Papis (Ita) Lola-Ford
10 Oriol Servia (Spa) Lola-Toyota
11 Bruno Junqueira (Bra) Lola-Toyota
12 Michael Andretti (USA) Reynard-Honda

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