A fire on board his Chevrolet-powered car brought a premature end to a charging Will Power’s IndyCar race in Brazil.

The Australian, the winner of the past three races on the streets of Sao Paolo, had moved up 12 places from his lowly-starting position of 22nd when the fire broke out on lap 19.

Canadian James Hinchcliffe went on to win his second race of the season while Japan’s Takuma Sato will leave Brazil as the championship leader with 136 points.

Power’s retirement, the first time he’s failed to finish a street circuit race in IndyCar since the Toronto event in 2011, left him in unfamiliar territory at a lowly 18th on the season standings after four races.

Power said a problem with his gearbox had sparked the fire which ended his day.

“Obviously burned something with the gear shift because it stopped shifting,” he said.

“I was looking for the automatic shift or the manual shift, but yeah it was a fire.

“We don’t know what happened. I had no real warning, unfortunately. I had such a good car – I was passing a car a lap.”

The result means Power has gone more than 12 months since his last victory in the championship and puts his hopes for this year’s title in severe doubt.

Power’s championship runner-up finishes in the past three years have come on the back of his ability to dominate the championship’s street circuit events.

With four of those events completed, Power will need to make up those points on the less-favoured American oval-style circuits.

The next race in the championship will be the opening event on an oval circuit, the iconic Indianapolis 500 on May 26.

No Australian has won at the Brickyard and Power’s best result there was fifth in 2009.