Marussia chief Graeme Lowdon thanks F1 community for support - MotorSportsTalk

In a very heartfelt and emotional press conference on Friday in Russia, Marussia president and sporting director Graeme Lowdon has thanked the Formula 1 community for its support in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s accident at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

During the final few laps of the race at Suzuka, Bianchi crashed into a recovery vehicle being used to remove another car, leaving him with severe head injuries. He remains in a critical but stable condition in Mie General Hospital.

Marussia took the decision to only run with one car in Russia this weekend, leaving Bianchi’s #17 car ready to race on the other side of the garage in support of the Frenchman.

Speaking to the media for the first time since last weekend’s race, Lowdon was quick to thank the F1 paddock for its support and love over the past few days.

“It’s been an incredibly difficult week for Formula 1 but it’s been an incredibly difficult week for our team,” Lowdon said. “As you know, Jules Bianchi had a terrible accident in Suzuka. He’s in hospital there. He’s in a critical condition and the thoughts of everybody in the team, and I know much wider than that, are with Jules at this moment and also with his family.

“I’d like to personally thanks [Ferrari team principal] Marco Mattiacci for his support and kindness, not just in his role at Ferrari, but personally as well. He was at the hospital immediately afterwards and I know provided an awful lot of comfort to those that were there.

“Jules is an exceptional Formula 1 driver but he’s also an exceptional human being. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t like him.

“You wouldn’t wish that accident on anybody, but I think certainly Jules has so many friends that it’s really hit home very hard for a lot of people.

“Our priority from this point onwards is obviously to Jules and his family and we want to provide them with the maximum amount of support at what is really a very difficult time.”

Although this weekend’s race in Russia was expected to herald much fanfare as a new event, it has instead been a very subdued affair so far as thoughts up and down the paddock lie with Bianchi.

The on-track action resumes at Sochi tomorrow with FP3, live on Live Extra from 4am ET.

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