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Simon Pagenaud wins 2019 Indy 500!

Simon Pagenaud wins 2019 Indy 500!

26-05-2019 21:00 Last update: 21:08
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Jake Williams-Smith

Simon Pagenaud secured victory in the 2019 Indy 500 from Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato. The Frenchman fought off a resurgent Rossi, retaking the lead with just two laps remaining with an audacious sweep around the outside of turn three.

The action was frenetic from the outset as Simon Pagenaud retained his lead from pole position but there was no holding back.

Colton Herta’s race ended just as soon as it started, a gearbox issue brought out the first caution of the day and ended the young chargers afternoon.

Helio Castroneves was handed a drive-through penalty for hitting James Davidson on pit road, sending a wheel flying. Fortunately, nobody was hit by the flying Firestone tyre.

Pagenaud retained his lead after the first round of green flag pit stops and extended his lead to two seconds over teammate Will Power.

The second caution was out soon after, this time for a crash. Kyle Kaiser’s fairytale Indy experience sadly came to a close after spinning into the wall at turn four, having drifted offline.

The restart had everyone going at it hammer and tongs but Pagenaud retained his lead once again from Carpenter setting up a duel between the two in the second phase of the race.

Alexander Rossi was pressuring Newgarden for third but couldn’t break the Chevrolet grip on the top three.

Power’s day took a turn for the worst after hitting one of his crew members in his second stop and was sent to the rear of the field for the restart.

At halfway, the pole-sitter retained his lead over Carpenter and Newgarden but the fuel was becoming a worry for his team.

Rossi had been set to make up great time with a long stint but a fuel hose error cost him valuable time and relegated him to fifth.

It wasn’t for long, however. The ex-Marussia F1 driver was up to second and challenging for the lead just six laps later showing an incredible turn of pace.

The pace was enough pressure to force Pagenaud to pit just outside of the fuel window for two more stops but it was about to unravel the challenger.

Rossi hit pit road in the box seat for the win but his crew couldn’t get fuel into the car, costing him huge amounts of time. Simultaneously, Marcus Ericsson spun on pit road to bring out the third caution of the day.

The slow stop put Rossi back down to fifth position with just over 50 laps remaining.

Rossi got the best restart of anybody but was forced to back out of it in turn one, costing him momentum and two spots on the road while the leaders broke away.

After over 100 laps led, Pagenaud finally lost the lead of the race with championship leader Newgarden sweeping by into turn three on lap 151.

Oriol Servia only served to make Rossi’s day even worse, almost putting him in the wall twice despite being a lap down on the leaders.

Pagenaud would swoop back into the lead but pit immediately for his final stop of the race with Rossi the first to respond of the top runners.

Newgarden and Carpenter would rejoin ahead before Rossi passed the pair of them, setting up a duel to the finish between himself and Pagenaud.

Rossi swept into the lead on lap 177 before a huge wreck brought out a red flag. Five drivers were out on the spot after Sebastien Bourdais squeezed Graham Rahal into turn three, creating chaos behind.

The final leg of the Indy 500 resumed with just 13 laps remaining and Pagenaud wasted no time retaking the lead from Rossi into turn one only for the two of them to swap positions for the next three laps before the Frenchman stamped his authority on first.

Takuma Sato surprised everyone and made his way up the order into P3 with just nine laps to go and began stalking the leading pair.

With three laps, Rossi swept around the outside of turn one to retake the lead but Pagenaud paid him back at turn three heading to the final lap and held off to take victory in an incredibly close race.

The result puts Pagenaud to the top of the IndyCar points standings, with the Indy 500 counting for double points in the series.