Simon Pagenaud: “The stars have aligned”

After 2h50 of effort and tension, simon pagenaud can tip the traditional bottle of milk offered to the winner of the Indy 500 on his head and let his joy burst forth. He has finally entered the winner's circle of the legendary American event, having already come very close to winning in 2015.

The champion IndyCar 2016 this time came to fruition at the end of a race perfectly controlled by the driver of the No. 12 DW22 and by the Penske team, which was able to give a perfect car to the Frenchman. Already dominating in qualifying, Pagenaud controlled events, whether it was Alexander's attacks Red (Andretti Autosport – Honda) or even the neutralization under red flag after the accident involving Sébastien Bourdais.

“The biggest dream of my life has come true, indicates Simon Pagenaud after the finish. I drove with enthusiasm today. I can't take all the credit for that, because I think it showed that I had the best car on track.

You know, there were a lot of races where we were strong, but we never really executed everything well until the end. Today it was all about attacking. We had our strategy meeting this morning and we decided that we were going to attack, that we were going to control the day and that we were going to take our destiny into our own hands.

Obviously, everything worked out very well for us. The stars, as I said, aligned this month, but especially today […] I think of Juan Pablo Montoya, I think of Helio Castroneves, I think of Josef (Newgarden) and Will (Power), Gil de Ferran, and in particular Rick Mears, who taught me so well the complexity of driving on ovals. I applied it today, and it worked. »

A time lag in terms of fuel with some of his rivals, Simon Pagenaud was able to save enough fuel by allowing himself to be overtaken by Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi, before the red flag came to cut the race short. consumption.

“I obviously led most of the race, so I didn't have a lot of awareness of my car in traffic, explains Pagenaud. We were so far ahead that we didn't save enough fuel. When I let Josef pass and drove behind him the whole stint, the car was phenomenal. It was really easy for me to follow.

I let Alexander pass to save fuel just before the yellow flag came out, so that was a bit disappointing. But we were able to catch him. Honestly, I wasn't really worried about coming back, I was just worried about the pace, when to catch him to get back first. »

New leader of the championship, Simon Pagenaud thus offered Team Penske its 18th victory at the Indy 500, while managing to win from pole position, which had not been achieved since 2009, and the last victory for Helio Castroneves, also a member of Roger Penske's team. Another nice nod to history, Simon Pagenaud bringing home a new French victory, the first since René Thomas in 1914.

Discover the full report of the Indianapolis 500, produced by our special correspondent in the United States, in issue 2218 of AUTOhebdo, available this evening in digital version, and this Wednesday on newsstands.