Grand Prix Rejects

East Londoner wrote:Unbelievable finish for the Freedom 100 just now. There was two THOUSANDTHS of a second separating the winner from 2nd place.



Stoneman.

Exactly 0.0024, closer than 2013's 0.0026. Respect for Stoneman.

And Piedrahita nearly hit the attenuator at the final lap shoot-out

Exciting finish, great to see Stoneman win. #BallOfSteel

Simon Pagenaud just demonstrated how NOT to do an oval race restart. 2nd to 9th in two laps.

Penske want to choke this race away, it would appear. Montoya junked it in turn 2, Power got a DTP for driving into the side of TK in the pits, and Pagenaud's just been done for doing the same to Aleshin.

EDIT: Saying that, Helio's car looks like it's on rails at the moment. Would love to see him bag his fourth win at the Brickyard.

WTF WAS THAT BELL?!

Rossi in 2nd!

Izzyeviel wrote:Rossi in 2nd!

Rossi in the lead!

Buddy Lazier's wheel just came off exiting the pits. That's very dangerous, folks.

...and out goes Sato. Fiddlesticks. He actually wasn't looking too bad for once.

Holy s___, Rossi!

He had just enough fuel to just coast to the line.

Now he has to get towed to victory lane, heh.

That was unbelievable. Those last few laps were the tensest I've ever watched. What a way to celebrate 100 Indy 500s.

I'm actually in tears watching this. Can't quite believe Alex made it on that fuel.

I thought that Rossi could do well, but I didn't think that he could actually win it!!!

Congrats Alex - brilliant fuel saving btw!

F1's loss is IndyCar's gain? Way to go Rossi!!!

What a race! The last laps were so dramatic! Fantastic win for Rossi.

First F1 reject to win Indy 500 since Bobby Rahal in 1986.

This was my first time I watched an Indycar race ever and I have to admit I was pleasently surprised (Even if Sato went out). Didnt know the Corpulant Columbian was still racing though, let alone last years winner! Also feels more authentic than F1

I would definitely watch again, though I much prefferred BT Sports coverage to the local coverage (Maybe thats just me though), Already eyeing up next weekend!

Caught the last 50 laps or so, the speeds at Indy are always impressive. I found it hard to follow though in those last few laps. I don't think the graphics helped in that respect but I couldn't believe Munoz was still in second after his stop. Very frenetic!

Massively happy for Rossi though, hopefully this is the start of big things for him, whether in IndyCar or F1. If Haryanto gets the boot from Manor it would be great to see him back in the car, and especially interesting to see how he stacks up against Wehrlein. Rossi had the measure of Stevens quite comfortably last season.

AndreaModa wrote:Caught the last 50 laps or so, the speeds at Indy are always impressive. I found it hard to follow though in those last few laps. I don't think the graphics helped in that respect but I couldn't believe Munoz was still in second after his stop. Very frenetic!

Massively happy for Rossi though, hopefully this is the start of big things for him, whether in IndyCar or F1. If Haryanto gets the boot from Manor it would be great to see him back in the car, and especially interesting to see how he stacks up against Wehrlein. Rossi had the measure of Stevens quite comfortably last season.

My nan could have had the measure of Stevens last year.
But contragulations Rossi, great drive,

andrew wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:Caught the last 50 laps or so, the speeds at Indy are always impressive. I found it hard to follow though in those last few laps. I don't think the graphics helped in that respect but I couldn't believe Munoz was still in second after his stop. Very frenetic!

Massively happy for Rossi though, hopefully this is the start of big things for him, whether in IndyCar or F1. If Haryanto gets the boot from Manor it would be great to see him back in the car, and especially interesting to see how he stacks up against Wehrlein. Rossi had the measure of Stevens quite comfortably last season.

My nan could have had the measure of Stevens last year.
But contragulations Rossi, great drive,

Well, Merhi didn't for most of the season!

AndreaModa wrote:

andrew wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:Caught the last 50 laps or so, the speeds at Indy are always impressive. I found it hard to follow though in those last few laps. I don't think the graphics helped in that respect but I couldn't believe Munoz was still in second after his stop. Very frenetic!

Massively happy for Rossi though, hopefully this is the start of big things for him, whether in IndyCar or F1. If Haryanto gets the boot from Manor it would be great to see him back in the car, and especially interesting to see how he stacks up against Wehrlein. Rossi had the measure of Stevens quite comfortably last season.

My nan could have had the measure of Stevens last year.
But contragulations Rossi, great drive,

Well, Merhi didn't for most of the season!

Mehri hadn't done much before to warrant a drive. Hasn't won a race for quite a while. Stevens was the kind of guy who would finish 5th in a formula Renualt and could on a mad day win a race but would be no match to a gp2 runner up in Rossi

Funny. The old F1 Rejects website was pretty much founded on the principle that all the drivers profiled within were better than the average person on the street, and that's part of what makes them worthy of respect. And yet here I'm reading comments undermining Will Stevens' ability at the wheel. Yeah, he's not a top driver, or anywhere near, but there have been far, far worse than him in the past, and yeah, it is impressive that Rossi was able to beat him given how little our new Indy 500 winner had driven the Manor (if at all in 2015?) before Singapore.

Maybe I'm overreacting a little bit...

Good race... the BT/American commentary and constant adverts nearly ruined it for me though.

The autosport thread on the race is hilarious, apparently having the winning strategy means you are an undeserving winner

I thought it said a lot about Rossi that he matched and beat Stevens straight out of the gate.... whereas a certain other former Manor driver, who would have won Phoenix if he had talent, regularly got thrashed by Stevens...

Rossi was fast all month. Chilton was not. Rossi threw the dice to win the 100th Indy 500, and he did it. Maybe the whiners over at Autosport just need to eat a fat one.

Rossi is an Indy 500 winner! Let's hope this gets him back into the F1 scene!

I just managed to save a saved stream and watch in live on delay.
I can't believe it. Holy sh*t. What a job.

ALEXANDER ROSSI WINS 100TH INDIANAPOLIS 500 ON ROOKIE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!

I smell a help from Dan Wheldon

Tough break for Carlos Munoz, but that's racing.

ROTR clearly for Townsend Bell. Took out himself and teammate Hunter-Reay from contention in pit collission.

Monaco: 14th (x2)
Le Mans: DNF
Indy: 15th

He's done it!

Having a wonderful time in this town called Indianapolis. Fantastic weather (much better than the forecasts predicted). Spoke to a young lady at Chicago O'Hare Airport on the way into the country who claimed to be the granddaughter of Dallara (she had a Dallara-branded suitcase, so must be true!). Passed A. J. Foyt in the hotel lobby. Saw Pippa Mann race as high as 6th briefly with 4 laps to go during that final pitstop sequence. Tons of on-track action throughout the race so that the race nowhere near felt three hours long. Happy to see Charlie Kimball got a top-10 finish. And we have a wonderful tour rep that has made plans while we have been here for us to go to see a local baseball game tonight, featuring, I believe, the Indiana Indians. Just not looking forward to the 10 or so hours of flight time via Newark to Heathrow tomorrow...

Oh, and the Hall of Fame Museum is on a par with Donnington's museum.

Having now watched this race from a recording, I'd like to congratulate Alexander Rossi on his maiden IndyCar victory at this year's Indy 500.

My guess is that he made this strategy work because he is an expert in hitting his fuel numbers, as current-era F1 is more about hitting fuel numbers and treating tires correctly according to strategy than anything else.

From the video, it looked like the crowd loved the result.

Another tidbit: now the Bryan Herta w/ Curb-Agajanian car #98 has won both the 100th anniversary race and the 100th running of the Indy 500.

Yannick wrote:From the video, it looked like the crowd loved the result.

We did indeed. It was clear that the Americans around us all had their favourite drivers, but Rossi's victory was a universally welcomed one, with loud cheers of joy erupting when we realised what had happened.

In this article, Rossi and Herta tell the story of how this was no ordinary fuel strategy by any means: www.racer.com/more/viewpoints/item/1302 ... -500-glory.

This is highly recommended reading because it helps one understand what happened much better.

As I have been saying on this forum since his GP2 days, Rossi is the best American driver no one has heard of. I was announcing at the drag strip Sunday to a pack house (463 entries) and was giving constant updates over the PA about Monaco, Indy, and then the 600. People in the pits later on asked me why I was losing my mind over "some Italian" winning the 500. Sigh.

All I know is SI better put him on the damn cover this week.

I wasn't aware, but Carlos Munoz was really disappointed to miss the chance of winning again, he was crying like Max Papis in the US 500 of 99 season when the Italian missed the victory after ran out of fuel in the last lap.

Having been to the race, I felt it's about time I posted the following:

ROTR: JPM. From winning last year, he qualified mid-pack, and never appeared to get anywhere near the top-10, then crashed out at around 1/4-race distance.

IIDOTR: Rossi, obviously. But also Munos. And Pippa Mann scored her best Indy 500 result, despite the late pitstop that dropped her from top-10 to 18th and first of those lapped.

JPM failed to finish a 500 mile race for the first time in his career. I can't see another candidate for ROTR, maybe team Penske as whole.

Yeah, Pagenaud didn't exactly shine in the 500, in contrast to his results in the first 5 races of the year, so Team Penske would also be good for ROT500.

Team Penske REALLY tried to piss away all of their chances at winning the 500. I don't know who/what else should be ROTR, except for just Montoya, maybe... nah. Montoya screwing up is just more reason to give that honor to Penske.

Bourdais! Daly! Montoya!

Penske managed to turn a surefire 1-2-3-4 into a 3rd, 5th, 13th and DNF. Great job chaps. Pagenaud's strategy was insane, he went from 5th to 13th in the final six laps. He and Helio were over four seconds off the pace for most of that final stint, they effectively lost TWO pitstops to the leading quartet by the chequered flag.

One hell of a strategy call by Jimmy Vasser there to get BORDAS out ahead of the Penskes. The only way this could have been better is if Daly won for Dale Coyne, but I'll happily take a BORDAS victory.

aaaand Team Penske screwed themselves again. What a bad strategy call for Pagenaud and Castroneves.