Alexander Rossi amazes the world of motorsport by winning the 100th Running of the Indy 500 at his first attempt

At the 100th running of the Indianpolis 500 today, IndyCar rookie, former F1 driver and Manor Racing Reserve driver Alexander Rossi wins the race at his first attempt. Rossi had been racing in Formula One in 2015, but found himself without a ride heading into 2016. He landed one with Andretti Autosport for the 2016 IndyCar season, and had a best finish of tenth place heading into Sunday’s race.

Pole-sitter James Hinchcliffe led the field away for the first of 200 laps on Sunday afternoon.HoweverHinchcliffe did not lead Lap 1, as Ryan Hunter-Reay took the top spot from him before the completion of the first lap. The two drivers traded the lead back and forth until the first round of stops began on Lap 28.

During that round of stops, Hinchcliffe’s team was unable to get his fuel hose in correctly, and the ensuing sluggish stop dropped him outside of the top 5. He would work his way back up to battle Hunter-Reay again later in the race.

Meanwhile, Hunter-Reay lost the lead on Lap 42 to Townsend Bell, whose only Verizon IndyCar Series race each year is the Indy 500. The race went caution-free until Lap 47 when a piece of debris was spotted on the back straight. The caution brought every car down pit road, with Hunter-Reay leading the field off. This meant that Will Power had to drop to the back of the field after contact with Tony Kanaan on pit road.

Once again, Hunter-Reay led them back to green on Lap 55 but Bell quickly rallied his way back up to the front and began trading the top spot. Bell soon dropped back, however, and Hinchcliffe found himself back up in second behind Hunter-Reay.

The caution flew for the second time of the day on Lap 64 when former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya coming out of Turn 2. Although Hinchcliffe won the ensuing race off of pit road, Power did not pit under the caution and so led the field back to green on Lap 75.

Further back in the field, Simon Pagenaud (who had been running in the top 5) was told to drop to the back of the field for an unsafe release on pit road. Power quickly dropped back through the field behind Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay, and then 2001 winner Helio Castroneves made his first appearance up front on Lap 90.

The third caution of the day flew soon after when Sage Karam lost control in Turn 1 on Lap 94 and ended up hard in the outside wall. Fortunately, Karam was OK. The race restarted on Lap 105 and we saw Kanaan working his way up to the front to battle Hunter-Reay, Castroneves and Bell, and he led for the first time on Lap 109 before dropping back.

Bell was leading on Lap 115 when the fourth caution of the race flew. This time it was Mikhail Aleshin who spun coming out of Turn 1 and got into the wall. As he tried to avoid the incident, Conor Daly lost control and also spun into the wall. Daly was able to get going again while Aleshin was done.

Bell led coming into the pits but then bounced off of Castroneves’ car as he came off of pit road; spun Bell's car into the path of Hunter-Reay and was then given a stop-go penalty for the collision.

At this stage of the race, Alex Tagliani and Alexander Rossi did not pit under the caution and led the field back to green on Lap 121, with Rossi quickly taking the top spot. Tagliani – who had started from last position – soon took it back. Eventually, the two drivers had to pit for fuel, putting Castroneves back into the lead. Castroneves pit on Lap 150 right when the caution flew for a stray wheel on track that was not attached properly to Buddy Lazier’s car coming off of pit road.

Castroneves led the field back to green on Lap 158 but Tony Kanaan and Josef Newgarden had disposed of him before they got to Turn 1. Hinchcliffe soon followed. Helio’s chances of victory evaporated on Lap 162 when his wheel guard began to fall off after contact with JR Hildebrand, but he was saved by a caution coming out when Takuma Sato tagged the Turn 4 wall, bringing out a caution.

Hildebrand led the field back to green after not pitting under the caution, but soon lost it to Tony Kanaan. Kanaan led until 21 laps left to go, when Newgarden took it from him. Carlos Munoz then made his first appearance up front with 10 laps to go, which is when the final round of pit stops began, as all of the front-running cars were about 2 laps short on fuel.

While all of the leaders came in, Alexander Rossi elected to stay out and managed to run it to the end and took the win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at his first attempt and is the first driver since Helio Castroneves in 2001 to win at the first attempt.

Rossi finished ahead of his team mate Carlos Munoz who challenged Rossi right until the end to finish in second place ahead of Josef Newgarden in third place, Tony Kanaan in fourth place and Charlie Kimball in fifth place.

JR Hilderbrand ended the race in sixth place ahead of James Hinchcliffe who finished a stunning seventh place after a year which saw him recover from an accident at this event a year ago, Scott Dixon in eighth place, Sebastien Bourdais in ninth place and Will Power who rounds off the top ten finishers of the race.

The classification for the Indy 500 is as follows:

1. Alexander Rossi USA Andretti Autosport – Honda 200 laps
2. Carlos Munoz COL Andretti Autosport – Honda 200 laps
3. Josef Newgarden USA Ed Carpenter Racing – Chevrolet 200 laps
4. Tony Kanaan BRZ Chip Ganassi – Chevrolet 200 laps
5. Charlie Kimball USA Chip Ganassi – Chevrolet 200 laps
6. JR Hildebrand USA Ed Carpenter Racing – Chevrolet 200 laps
7. James Hinchcliffe CAN Schmidt Peterson – Honda 200 laps
8. Scott Dixon NZL Chip Ganassi – Chevrolet 200 laps
9. Sebastien Bourdais FRA KVSH – Chevrolet 200 laps
10. Will Power AUS Team Penske – Chevrolet 200 laps
11. Helio Castroneves BRZ Team Penske – Chevrolet 200 laps
12. Oriol Servia ESP Schmidt Peterson – Honda 200 laps
13. Marco Andretti USA Andretti Autosport – Honda 200 laps
14. Graham Rahal USA Rahal Letterman Racing – Honda 200 laps
15. Max Chilton GBR Chip Ganassi – Chevrolet 200 laps
16. Jack Hawksworth GBR AJ Foyt Enterprises – Honda 200 laps
17. Alex Tagliani CAN AJ Foyt Enterprises – Honda 200 laps
18. Pippa Mann GBR Dale Coyne Racing – Honda 199 laps
19. Simon Pagenaud FRA Team Penske – Chevrolet 199 laps
20. Gabby Chaves COL Dale Coyne Racing- Honda 199 laps
21. Townsend Bell USA Andretti Autosport – Honda 199 laps
22. Matthew Brabham AUS Pirtek Team Murray – Chevrolet 199 laps
23. Bryan Clauson USA Jonathan Byrd’s Racing – Honda 198 laps
24. Ryan Hunter-Reay USA Andretti Autosport – Honda 198 laps
25. Spencer Pigot USA Rahal Letterman Racing – Honda 195 laps
26. Takuma Sato JPN AJ Foyt Enterprises – Honda 163 laps
27. Mikhail Aleshin RUS Schmidt Peterson – Honda 126 laps
28. Stefan Wilson GBR KVSH – Chevrolet 119 laps
29. Conor Daly USA Dale Coyne Racing – Honda 115 laps
30. Buddy Lazier USA Lazier Burns – Chevrolet 100 laps
31. Ed Carpenter USA Ed Carpenter Racing – Chevrolet 98 laps
32. Sage Karam USA Dreyer & Reinbold – Chevrolet 93 laps
33. Juan Pablo Montoya COL Team Penske – Chevrolet 63 laps

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa