Simon Pagenaud (Penske) became Sunday the first Frenchman to win the legendary Indianapolis 500 miles since Gaston Chevrolet nearly a century ago, in 1920.
"Hard to believe"
The 2016 IndyCar champion, who had taken pole position, edged out two former winners of the event, American Alexander Rossi (Andretti) and Japan's Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan).
"It's hard to believe, the race was so intense, commented the winner on the podium, we drove most of the race, the car was perfect, the stars lined up. I did not think I could, but I certainly did everything for it. "
A success that took shape late
Pagenaud, who opted for an aggressive strategy, led a total of 116 laps out of 200 but the victory was played on the wire. In the 178th lap, Rossi doubled the Frenchman, who ran the risk of running out of fuel to finish the race, but two successive accidents caused a red flag two laps later.
Success had to be played in the last twenty loops. After this interruption, Rossi and Pagenaud kept on muting each other, until the pilot of Penske, the historic IndyCar team, took a decisive advantage two laps from the finish. With this victory, Pagenaud also leads the Championship with a point advantage over his American teammate Josef Newgarden.