Castroneves Wins Historic Fourth Indy 500

Calum Gill 20:44 30/05/2021

Hélio Castroneves has made history by winning his fourth Indianpolis 500 title, crossing the line to win for Meyer Shank Racing.

Brazilian Castroneves joins A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears as four-time winners at the Brickyard. It is also a compelling storyline, given this victory comes 20 years after his first Indy 500 victory back in 2001.

Castroneves was locked in a three-way battle for the most part of the race between himself, Chip Gannasi driver Álex Palou and Patricio O'Ward in the Arrow McLaren SP. Castroneves and Palou swapped positions eight times in the final 21 laps while cycling back towards the front as pitstop strategies shook out and then while fighting for the outright lead.

Palou, now in his second season of IndyCar, looked to have put himself in prime position to take his maiden Indy 500 win when he got past Castroneves with 4 laps to go. However, Castroneves got back ahead on the penultimate lap, a lead which he held on to for the remainder of the race.

Although he had looked one of the favourites to win out of the aforementioned three, O'Ward dropped back in the final few laps, and was passed for third by 2019 winner Simon Pagenaud on the last lap. Pagenaud drove a brilliant race, with his third place coming from a 26th place start. Ed Carpenter Racing had a long spell running 1-2 and lead-swapping with Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly, but while they fell back to eighth and 13th respectively in the end, team boss Carpenter made it through to fifth.

He and VeeKay were split by two one-off entrants – Santino Ferrucci in Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s extra car and a brilliant run by Sage Karam for Dreyer & Reinbold. Juan Pablo Montoya made good progress to take ninth for Arrow McLaren SP on his IndyCar return, with Tony Kanaan completing the top 10 for Ganassi. Polesitter Scott Dixon could only manage 17th after he fell a lap down as a result of his car refusing to restart after having to make an emergency stop.

There were only 2 cautions in the race, one of which being for Stefan Wilson crashing in the pit lane early on, and the other being for a scary accident in which Graham Rahal crashed heavily when his left-rear wheel detached itself in the pit exit lane having not been properly fitted. Daly’s car hit the loose wheel and sent it flying into the infield, yet Daly was able to continue to the finish with only minor damage.

2021 Indianapolis 500 Full Result (USA unless stated)

1st. Hélio Castroneves (BRA)

2nd. Álex Palou (ESP)

3rd. Simon Pagenaud (FRA)

4th. Patricio O'Ward (MEX)

5th. Ed Carpenter

6th. Santino Ferrucci

7th. Sage Karam

8th. Rinus VeeKay (NED)

9th. Juan Pablo Montoya (COL)

10th. Tony Kanaan (BRA)

11th. Marcus Ericsson (SWE)

12th. Josef Newgarden

13th. Conor Daly

14th. Takuma Sato (JPN)

15th. J.R. Hildebrand

16th. Colton Herta

17th. Scott Dixon (NZ)

18th. Jack Harvey (GBR)

19th. Marco Andretti

20th. Scott McLaughlin (NZ)

21st. James Hinchcliffe (CAN)

22nd. Ryan Hunter-Reay

23rd. Dalton Kellett (CAN)

24th. Max Chilton (GBR)

25th. Pietro Fittipaldi (BRA)

26th. Sébastian Bourdais (SUI)

27th. Felix Rosenqvist (SWE)

28th. Ed Jones (UAE)

29th. Alexander Rossi

30th. Will Power (AUS)

DNF: Simona De Silvestro (SUI)

DNF: Graham Rahal

DNF: Stefan Wilson (GBR)