Buemi goes wire-to-wire to win Monaco ePrix - MotorSportsTalk

e.dams driver Sebastien Buemi has become the first driver to win multiple races in the FIA Formula E championship after going wire-to-wire in today’s Monaco ePrix.

The Frenchman clinched pole position on Saturday afternoon in Monaco, and after retaining the lead at the start of the race, he controlled proceedings to lead every lap and win the race by 2.1 seconds from championship leader Lucas di Grassi.

Buemi managed to fend off the Brazilian’s advances at the start of the race, but further back, a number of drivers got caught up in incidents at the tight first corner complex, resulting in immediate retirements for Jaime Alguersuari and Bruno Senna.

Jean-Eric Vergne, Salvador Duran, Loic Duval and Daniel Abt were able to crawl back to the pits despite sustaining damage to their cars, but none of the quartet managed to complete the full distance of 47 laps due to the limited power of their second cars.

Buemi soaked up the pressure applied by di Grassi throughout the opening half of the race, prompting the Brazilian to pit early with 10% of his energy remaining in a bid to get the undercut on the race leader.

However, Buemi reacted quickly, pitting two laps later to exit the pits just ahead of di Grassi, resulting in a close fight between the two drivers heading to the hairpin at what normally acts as the Nouvelle Chicane.

From then on, the e.dams driver simply had to monitor his energy usage and the gap to di Grassi, who came under pressure from title rival Nelson Piquet Jr in the final stages of the race. The Audi Sport ABT driver managed to hang on to second place though, extending his championship lead over Piquet to four points.

Sam Bird managed to fight his way through the field to finish an excellent fourth for Virgin Racing, battling past Jerome d’Ambrosio after pitting. Nicolas Prost crossed the line in sixth place in the second e.dams car ahead of Stephane Sarrazin, who was the biggest beneficiary from the first lap melee. Scott Speed finished eighth in the sole remaining Andretti ahead of Charles Pic and Antonio Felix da Costa.

With just three rounds and four races remaining, the title battle in Formula E does appear to be shaping up. Di Grassi remains in the lead over Piquet, but with two wins now in the books, Buemi has brought himself to within ten points of the lead.

The next ePrix takes place in Berlin on May 23.

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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