MOTORSPORT: Sato wins Indy 500 as Honda dominates

Takuma Sato has won the Indianapolis 500 for the second time, defeating Kiwi Scott Dixon who led the most laps in the race but had to follow his rival across the line under yellow flags.

The Australian challenge started to falter early, with James Davison out on lap six because of a fiery brake failure.

Toowoomba Team Penske star Will Power finished 14th after an issue at his last stop dropped him out of the top 10 to 18th. He had also been running an off-sequence strategy that was spoiled by the appearance of yellow flags.

Double F1 world champion Fernando Alonso finished only 21st, his race compromised by handling problems and a clutch failure that meant a push start from his mechanics after each stop.

Honda powered the first four cars home, with Graham Rahal third and Santino Ferruci fourth.

Pole qualifier Marco Andretti was not a contender for the win in a car that had too much understeer early and finished 13th, while his front-running Andretti Autosport teammate Alex Rossi crashed out on lap 145 of 200.

The first Chevrolet was the Team Penske entry of Josef Newgarden in fifth. It was not the result new Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske would have been hoping for.

Instead, the race was a triumph for the team owned by Indycar legend Bobby Rahal and talk show host David Letterman, who claimed first and third.

Sadly, because of the coronavirus, no spectators were allowed into the historic venue to watch the 104th running of the race.

Dixon led 111 laps but was passed by 43-year-old Sato after the last round of pit stops. The Chip Ganassi racing driver looked to be sizing him up for a repass when the full course caution came out due to a crash by Spencer Pigot on lap 194.

There had been question marks over whether Sato, who also won the Indy 500 in 2017, had enough fuel to make it to the chequered flag. But the caution period solved that.

“It’s unbelievable,” Sato said in victory lane before quaffing the traditional bottle of milk.

“We knew in terms of the fuel strategy it would be tight. I couldn’t use max power, I had to switch back and forth.”

Apart from Rossi and Pigot, others to be claimed by the unyielding confines of IMS included Marcus Ericsson, rookie Dalton Kellett, Oliver Askew and Alex Palou.