GP2 gets set for race #200 this weekend in Germany - MotorSportsTalk

As well as celebrating its tenth season in 2014, GP2 is now preparing for race #200 to take place on Saturday in support of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

Introduced in 2005 as a replacement for the International F3000 series, GP2 has since grown into one of the most senior and competitive single seater series around. Ordinarily, it supports half of the Formula 1 grands prix across the course of a season, mainly those in Europe. You can find out more about the series by reading our primer here.

Over the years, GP2 has produced a number of top Formula 1 drivers. 25 have made the jump up in total, including 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton (2006 GP2 champion), his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg (2005), grand prix winner Pastor Maldonado (2010), Lotus driver Romain Grosjean (2011), and the likes of Jules Bianchi, Esteban Gutierrez, Nico Hulkenberg and Kamui Kobayashi. Even American driver Scott Speed came through GP2 before entering F1.

Currently, the championship battle appears to be between Jolyon Palmer and Felipe Nasr. Both have plenty of experience in the series, but as we have seen over the past couple of years, winning the title does not necessarily guarantee a seat in Formula 1.

GP2 also plays host to the two American drivers that are closest to making the jump to Formula 1. Alexander Rossi had been a member of Caterham F1 Team’s academy, but parted company with the team earlier this week. He is now racing with Campos, and still has sights on a seat with Haas in 2016.

Conor Daly is the other young American racing in GP2, currently for Venezuelan GP Lazarus. We caught up with him at Silverstone where he spoke about the challenges facing young drivers trying to make their way up the ladder.

GP2 has provided us with many memorable moments over the years and some highly entertaining racing. Congratulations to all involved for reaching such a great milestone, and here’s to the next 200.

You can watch highlights of GP2 from Hockenheim this Sunday at 7pm ET on NBCSN.

Follow @LukeSmithF1

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