Rosberg storms to pole position in Bahrain - MotorSportsTalk

Nico Rosberg has claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix after finishing quickest in qualifying today.

The Mercedes driver surprised many to go quickest in the final session, with the team expected to struggle in Bahrain. Rosberg’s time of 1:32.330 was two-tenths quicker than Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who will join his compatriot on the front row.

Fernando Alonso qualified 3rd, with a mistake in Q3 meaning that he could not challenge for pole position, despite finishing quickest in Q1. Lewis Hamilton qualified 4th, but he will drop five places on the grid due to a gearbox penalty. Mark Webber, who also has a penalty, finished 5th, meaning that Felipe Massa will start in 4th for Ferrari on the harder tire.

Force India impressed once again to finish 7th and 8th, with Paul di Resta outqualifying Adrian Sutil, whilst Kimi Raikkonen could only line up 9th. Jenson Button failed to set a time, and he will start in 10th tomorrow.

The first qualifying session saw Alonso finish five-tenths clear of the rest of the field, with Red Bull leaving Vettel and Webber’s laps until very late on the softer tire. Further back, Marussia’s struggles continued as Max Chilton qualified last behind Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde, whilst Jules Bianchi finished a full nine-tenths behind Charles Pic. Esteban Gutierrez qualified P18, with a five-place grid penalty dropping him to last, whilst Pastor Maldonado was highly unlucky to make it into Q2. The Venezuelan driver set a lap time identical to that of his teammate Valtteri Bottas, but the Finn made it through having posted his time before Maldonado.

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Q2 failed to yield too many surprises as all of the big names made it through. However, Romain Grosjean could not match teammate Kimi Raikkonen for pace, finishing 11th, whilst Sergio Perez’s poor form continued as he ended up in P12. Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified 6th for last year’s race in Bahrain, could only line up 13th, albeit just 0.2 seconds off Button’s P10 time. Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Jean-Eric Vergne completed the classification in Q2, lining up 14th, 15th and 16th respectively.

The flurry of activity towards the end of Q3 meant that it was crucial to get good track position, and Rosberg appeared to perfect his lap to seal his second career pole position. Mercedes will be wary of Red Bull and Ferrari tomorrow, especially with Alonso running strongly in practice, and Massa’s alternative strategy suggests we are in for a thrilling race in Bahrain tomorrow.

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports