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Simon Pagenaud defeated Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato to win his first career victory at Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. The 2016 champion of the IndyCar Series has only passed two tenths of a second ahead of Rossi and the pair has swapped the lead for the last 10 laps of the race.
Pagenaud dominated most of the day after starting pole. At one point it appeared that Pagenaud might need to save fuel, which would have benefited Rossi. However, a late warning allowed the two pilots to resolve the situation head-on. This victory is the second in a row for Roger Penske after Will Power won the checkered flag last season. Penske now has a total of 18 wins at the Indy 500, which is the maximum of all teams. This is the 13th victory of Pagenaud's career.
Pagenaud, 35, became Vegas' favorite at 7-in-1 to side with Power after winning pole position. However, Power eventually became the only favorite with Pagenaud who fell to 8-in-1. Power came back from an expensive penalty on the pit road and finished fifth.
2019 Indianapolis 500 results
- Simon Pagenaud
- Alexander Rossi
- Takuma Sato
- Josef Newgarden
- Will
- Ed Carpenter
- Santino Ferrucci
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
- Tony Kanaan
- Conor Daly
- James Hinchcliffe
- James Davison
- Ed Jones
- Spencer Pigot
- Matheus Leist
- Pippa Mann
- Scott Dixon
- Helio Castroneves
- Sage Karam
- JR Hildebrand
- Jack Harvey
- Oriol Servia
- Marcus Ericsson
- Jordan King
- Charlie Kimball
- Marco Andretti
- Graham Rahal
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Zach Veach
- Sébastien Bourdais
- Kyle Kaiser
- Ben Hanley
- Colton Herta
Complete summary of the race
Here's how the race crashed from start to finish …
Simon Pagenaud started the race from pole, the peloton disputing the position behind him. Colton Herta, one of the favorites, suffered a gearbox problem and issued the warning. It was an unfortunate end for Herta, who was one of the best Hondas on the pitch, and the youngest rider on the track at 19.
After a short yellow flag, Pagenaud brought the peloton to the green ahead of Will Power and Ed Carpenter. He had no difficulty in surveying the ground because very few passages were going through the dirty air.
Green flag pit stops started around the 32nd lap, Pageneaud being ravaged by the start. It gave way briefly to Power before he stopped. James Davison slammed the locker room and Helio Castroneves made contact with him to head for the pit road, which led him to give in to a tire and give in. Fortunately, no member of the crew was injured, but Castroneves was fined controversially for the role he played in the incident.
Pagenaud recycled at pit stops as the leader of the race in front of Power, a Penske teammate. He had no problem dominating again before returning to the pits on lap 65 for a scheduled stop. These left in advance to Carpenter, who returned a few laps later. Rossi was the last car in the leading group to stop. Both Rossi and Power lost some time due to minor incidents on the pit road.
Jordan King hit a tire that struck one of his team members during his stoppage, apparently causing him a leg injury. The crew member was picked up on the road from the stands before being transported over the wall. King had to serve a vehicle penalty for hitting a member of the team. Crew member Chris Minot suffered life-threatening injuries and was treated.
After Kyle Kaiser passed his pit stop, he escaped and hit the strong wall while skirting the track. That ended the Kaiser Indy 500 race, but he was able to get out of the car on his own to be healed. This brought another warning.
Under control of the yellow race, Power was informed that he would have to leave the back of the field after a bad entry in his stand during the green flag break. Power had slightly contacted a member of the crew.
Pagenaud started again on the 80th lap as race leader and took the lead ahead of Carpenter and Josef Newgarden. The pole-sitter again did not waste time pacing the ground before breaking into the pits for a planned stop on the 100th lap. Carpenter took the lead shortly before being caught. It was then Scott Dixon, who played the long game and stayed in the lead for 12 more rounds.
The Penske pilot, Pagenaud, took the lead on lap 112, but this time he was not alone in front. Rossi found the speed he needed and started harassing the bumper of the Pagenaud Chevrolet.
Rossi did not succeed – or chose not to – past Pagenaud in front of the leader with 69 laps to go. The winner of the 2016 Indy 500 in 2016 was able to save more fuel behind the No. 22, while Pagenaud was burning excess fuel in clean air.
No. 27 hit the stands on the 137th lap and immediately ran into problems. When stopping, Rossi's fuel could not get the fuel in his Honda right away, which led to a 23-second shutdown (about three times longer than usual). As Rossi was leaving the pit lane, IndyCar officials issued the yellow flag after Marcus Ericsson's rotation in the pits.
Upon arrival at the pits, it appeared that Rossi would recycle as a race leader and take control. However, after slow fueling and caution, the playing field equalized in favor of Pagenaud. Rossi was a slight beneficiary of the yellow flag in that he was no longer losing position since the long break.
Pagenaud took the lead in front of Rossi in fifth position with just over 50 laps to go. Despite a chaotic push from all the top five drivers, Pagenaud managed to keep the top of the standings. Rossi returned to sixth place after an aggressive move that forced him to walk the entire track and even slightly on the grass.
After about three rounds, Newgarden attacked Pagenaud and took the lead at the Indy 500. Rossi, furious, continued to try to win a position but met a laureate driver – Oriol Servia – who apparently prevented Rossi from passing . Pilot # 27 withdrew his hand from the steering wheel and shook it in front of Servia.
Pagenaud got the last round of pit stops scheduled with 30 laps to go, moving from second position under Newgarden's lead. Rossi followed suit on the next lap and had no problem this time with a 6.9 second stop. Newgarden takes the lead a few laps later.
The Penske # 22 could not come back as fast as he would have liked, as he needed to save gas to get to the end. This allowed Rossi to advance on Pagenaud's bumper as the leaders returned to the front. Behind Pagenaud and Rossi were Carpenter and Newgarden.
Rossi took the lead of Pagenaud with 23 laps to go and just as he was starting to taste victory, Pagenaud was taking a huge break. Sebastian Bourdais and Graham Rahal made contact and the two hit the wall, highlighting the caution that Pagenaud desperately needed to maintain his fuel economy.
Rahal was extremely angry with Bourdais after the sinking, tapping him on the helmet after getting out of the cockpit. Rahal then continued to pump the noisy crowd to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
IndyCar officials have launched the red flag to clean up the track after the big one. Felix Rosenqvist, Zach Veach and Charlie Kimball were also involved in the wreck, alongside Rahal and Bourdais.
"At these speeds, it's like that we're killing someone," Rahal told the NBC television team during the red flag. The former IndyCar driver and host of the NBC channel, Danica Patrick, explained that it was about watching Bourdais to do a better job in this situation. Bourdais explained that he thought Rahal would back down before contact.
After a long delay (more than 30 minutes), Rossi took the peloton to the green with 14 laps to go before Pagenaud, Carpenter and Newgarden. As soon as the leaders crossed the starting line, Pagenaud came out and took the lead of Rossi.
A lap later, Pagenaud traded that lead to Rossi before taking it back to 11. Rossi continued to fight for the lead while Takuma Sato climbed to third place. No. 22 took control of the head, blocking Rossi in the last 10 miles.
Coming to the line with three laps to go, Rossi took the lead from Pagenaud, Sato remaining in the mix. Then, with a lap and a half to the left, Pagenaud took his advantage over Rossi and took the lead for good, preventing him from going to the checkered flag.
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