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Indy 500 winner of 2022 is an old friend of Formula 1!

29 May 2022 at 21:06
Last update 30 May 2022 at 05:01
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  • GPblog.com

The 106th edition of the Indy 500 was won by none other than former Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson. The two British drivers had no luck in Indianapolis. Jack Harvey finished at the back of the field while Callum Ilott crashed hard.

Crashes at the start of the race

Scott Dixon, Rinus VeeKay and Alex Palou led the race in the first couple of laps until VeeKay crashed while driving P2. He crashed on lap 39 and said himself he didn't understand why he lost his car. During the second series of pit stops, Callum Ilott crashed just before Palou entered the pits. However, he was not allowed to stop during the yellow flag and dropped back to P26. Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin also didn't see the finish line due to big crashes.

For a long time it seemed that May 29 would be Dixon's day. The New Zealander led for many laps, but entered the pits too fast at his last stop. This resulted in a drive through penalty. This left the McLarens of Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist on top with Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Enervating end with red flag

Ericsson grabbed the lead with a few laps to go and it looked like the former F1 driver could win his first Indy 500. Unfortunately for him, Jimmie Johnson crashed with five laps to go and race control brought a red flag. This gave the drivers another two-lap shoot-out.

Ericsson defended unprecedentedly hard against an unleashed O'Ward who really did try. It was to no avail for the Mexican however, because after an overtaking attempt in the last lap, Ericsson had made a small gap. This was just enough for victory. He won the race ahead of O'Ward and veteran Tony Kanaan.