Hamilton closes out Monaco GP practice on top - MotorSportsTalk

Lewis Hamilton has finished fastest in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix later today, which is live on NBCSN from 8am ET.

The British driver is chasing a fifth straight win this weekend, and his practice form suggests that he has every chance of doing exactly that after finishing ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Nico Rosberg on Saturday morning in Monaco.

The final practice session got underway under perfect blue skies, but Monaco’s serenity was broken when the 22 drivers headed out on track. Mercedes soon went about resuming normal service as Rosberg and Hamilton moved into the top two places.

Marcus Ericsson’s session took an early setback when he locked up at Sainte Devote and had to take to the run-off area. However, he was able to find reverse gear and get back onto the track. Rosberg and Hamilton continued to put in the laps and improve their times, with the German driver remaining one-tenth ahead after the prime tire runs. Hamilton had been working up a very quick lap, but a mistake at Tabac prompted him to return to the pits and request a setup change.

Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo continued to prove that Red Bull is slightly closer to Mercedes in Monaco, slotting into third and fourth place respectively ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen on the prime tire.

With 15 minutes to go, the first drivers pitted to switch to the option tire, and Ricciardo soon put it to good use by going quickest of all. In the other Red Bull, Vettel went into second place, some four-tenths down on his teammate as Hamilton headed back out again. However, Rosberg remained in the pits as the team fixed a problem on his car.

Hamilton used his first two laps to warm up his tires, but then duly went fastest of all with a lap that was just half-a-tenth quicker than Ricciardo’s benchmark. With five minutes remaining, Rosberg finally got out on track and started his final run, but traffic on his flying lap meant that he could only finish in third place, one-tenth of a second behind his teammate.

The pressure will now be on Mercedes in qualifying as Red Bull hints at a resurgence, but all of the signs suggest that Hamilton remains the driver to beat in Monaco.

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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