Manor reserve Rossi wins Indy 500

Alexander Rossi has won the Indy 500 on debut after a thrilling finish to the 100th running of the race.

The Manor reserve driver took the lead of the showpiece IndyCar event around the halfway mark but was filtered back to the lower reaches of the top ten by pit stops and caution periods. However, in a frantic finale Rossi rose in to the top five and then took the lead again when the leaders had to pit.

With Tony Kanaan, Carlos Munoz, Josef Newgaarden and James Hinchcliffe all pitting late on, Rossi was tight on fuel but made it to the line to become the first debut winner of the Indy 500 since 2001. The result also makes Rossi the ninth rookie winner of all time.

Rossi - who took part in five grands prix for Manor last year but missed out on a race seat for this season as the team opted to partner Pascal Wehrlein with Rio Haryanto - was so tight on fuel he ran out on victory lap and had to be towed back to the pits.

Another former F1 driver making his debut was Max Chilton who finished 15th, while last year's winner Juan Pablo Montoya was the first to crash out.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.