Tony Kanaan panics the statistics at Indy 500

Tony Kanaan has finally achieved it. The KV Racing Technology resident had to wait until his 12th start to achieve victory at the end of the 97th edition of the Indianapolis 500. The Brazilian set a new record by winning at an average speed of 187,433mph (around 301km/h), beating the old benchmark set by Arie Luyendyk in 1990 (with an average of 185,981mph or 299km/h). The driver of the No. 12 DW11, whose number won this legendary event for the first time, is the fourth Brazilian to win the Indy 500 after Helio Castroneves (2001,2002 and 2009), Emerson Fittipaldi (1989 and 1993) and Gil de Ferran (2003). The winner is only the second driver to win from 12th position, the first being Al Unser Jr in 1992.

But Tony Kanaan was not the only one to panic the counters in Indianapolis. Carlos Munoz achieved the best average speed for a rookie by taking second place, largely beating the record held by JR Hildebrand in 2011. Scott Dixon maintains exemplary consistency since he has his sixth consecutive finish at the Indy 500 (with 1566 consecutive laps carried out). But the 97th edition was especially marked by 68 changes of leader, which doubles the record established last year.

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Discover the full report of the Indianapolis 500 produced by our special correspondent in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.