Rossi Runs Second For Honda at Indianapolis 500

Rossi Runs Second For Honda at Indianapolis 500
• Alexander Rossi finishes second after taking battle for victory to the final laps
• Takuma Sato recovers from one-lap deficit to finish third
• Santino Ferrucci, in a spectacular drive, leads rookie runners with run to seventh

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (May 26, 2019) – Alexander Rossi took the battle for the Indianapolis 500 down to the final laps today, but when the checkers flew after 200 hard-fought laps, the 2016 “500” champion fell just two-tenths of a second short to winner Simon Pagenaud.

Starting ninth in the field of 33, Rossi remained in the lead group throughout the two-hour, 50-minute contest in his Andretti Autosport Honda as he, Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and several other Honda drivers were able to extend each fuel run two laps or more over the competition.

However, a late-race crash triggered when Bourdais and Graham Rahal made contact entering Turn 3 on Lap 178 eliminated the Honda entries of Bourdais, Rahal, Felix Rosenqvist and Zach Veach; and damaged the right-side bodywork and nose wings on Dixon’s car, effectively ending his challenge as well.

After a brief stoppage to clear the track, the race resumed with 13 laps remaining, setting up the duel between Rossi and Pagenaud. The pair traded the lead four times in the closing laps, but a pass into Turn 1 by Pagenaud on Lap 199 put him in the lead for the final time. In search of his second “500” victory, Rossi made a final bid for the win coming out of Turn 4 on the final lap, but Pagenaud held on for his first Indy triumph.

Behind the lead pair was the comeback story of the race. Takuma Sato lost a lap to the leaders after the opening round of pit stops, when he returned to pit lane for the team to inspect a possible loose wheel. The 2017 winner and his Rahal Letterman Lanigan team then put on a textbook display of how to recover from the deficit, as Sato regained the lead lap with just over 60 laps remaining, and on Lap 170 had moved to fifth place. After the final restart, Sato passed both Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter in the closing laps to take the checkered flag in third.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci had an excellent debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, running with former Indy 500 winner and series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay throughout the day, successfully avoiding the stricken cars in the Lap 178 crash and finishing seventh as the top rookie in today’s “500”. Hunter-Reay followed Ferrucci home to finish eighth.

In his first Indy car appearance of 2019, Conor Daly ran as high as fourth in his Andretti Autosport Honda, but was shuffled back in traffic after the final restart to finish 10th.

Next
NTT IndyCar Series teams and drivers now prepare for a hectic schedule of three races over the next two weeks, starting with next weekend’s June 1-2 doubleheader weekend, with races both Saturday and Sunday on the Belle Isle street circuit in Detroit, Michigan.