Hélio Castroneves has made history yet again at the Indianapolis 500 as he wins the event for the fourth time. The 46-year-old Brazilian joins the all-time greats of A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser as four-time winners at the Brickyard after an epic duel with Alex Palou on his way to collect the iconic Borg-Warner trophy – in only his first race for Meyer-Shank Racing.
Written by Danny Jones, Edited by Aiden Hover
Castroneves was engulfed in an enthralling battle with young guns Alex Palou and Patricio O’Ward for the last 75 laps of the race with the three drivers swapping positions frequently before Catroneves finally overcame his younger competitors with a daring move on Palou with three laps to go. Palou finished in second, whilst Simon Pagenaud overtook O’Ward on the final lap to grab the final podium position.
The race was the quickest in Indianapolis history due to the low number of cautions, the first of which was caused by Stefan Wilson’s pit lane spin and the second was caused by a dramatic crash involving Graham Rahal. Rahal lost a tyre exiting pit road following a bodged pit stop. This resulted in a scary smash into the wall with the runaway tyre colliding into the local hero’s car of Connor Daly.
Polesitter, Scott Dixon, endured a dramatic early phase of the race until he, along with Alexander Rossi, ran out of fuel in the pit lane and were unable to get their cars restarted. This put both drivers a lap down and effectively caused the end of their races. Dixon’s misery was made worse as he has now lost the championship lead to the young Spaniard of Alex Palou due to the double points spectacle on the Indy 500.
IndyCar is back in two weeks time in Detroit as the championship battle heats up. Today, however, is Hélio Castroneves’ as he wins at the Brickyard for the first time in 12 years to join his 2001, 2002 and 2009 victories.