Hamilton fights back for pole despite mistake on Q3 lap - MotorSportsTalk

Lewis Hamilton has established himself as the master of the fightback across the course of the 2014 F1 season, and this was clear once again during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix today as he made up for a mistake on his final Q3 lap to secure his sixth pole position of the season.

The British driver locked up heading into the first corner at Marina Bay on Saturday night, costing him time, but he still managed to pull out a lap that gave him pole position by just 0.007 seconds over his teammate and championship rival, Nico Rosberg.

Speaking in the post-session press conference, Hamilton admitted that he thought he had lost pole after making the mistake, but as the lap continued, he found more and more time to eventually overhaul Rosberg at the top of the timesheets.

“Quite an exciting qualifying session, I guess I wasn’t really expecting to see so much difference in how close everyone was,” Hamilton said. “We did some good laps in the first and second qualifying sessions, and saw the Ferraris very, very close, and then obviously to end up they way it did is good for our team.

“On my last lap, I locked up into turn one and lost a bit of time, but still managed to pull it back later on in the lap. At that point, I honestly thought that perhaps its over because I lost over a tenth and a half, but I just kept going and it got better and better throughout the lap.

“A great effort by the team to obviously come here at a very much downforce and engine dependent circuit, to have the performance we have, I think it’s a fantastic job by the team.”

When asked about tomorrow’s race, Hamilton said that he thinks tire degradation will be the most important factor, with three pit stops expected to be the norm across the course of Singapore Grand Prix.

“I think coming into the weekend, we had an opinion on how the tires would behave, and obviously when we got into the long runs yesterday, we saw quite a big difference from what we thought was going to happen, so I think tomorrow is going to be an interesting race,” he said.

“Looking after these tires is not easy, but I really think it will be a great race to watch for the fans. I think there’s going to be a lot going on.”

You can watch the Singapore Grand Prix live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 7.30am ET tomorrow morning.

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