Alex Palou beat Marcus Ericsson to become the first Spanish driver to win the Indy 500 after a hard-fought battle at Indianapolis on Sunday.

Palou made the winning move with 14 laps to go when he bravely dived to the inside of former F1 driver Ericsson into Turn 1 and held the lead until the end.

The Spaniard, who has dominated the 2025 IndyCar season with five wins from six races, was an outside candidate to join the new Cadillac F1 team in 2026 but revealed he was “not looking for a change”.

He is a three-time IndyCar champion but winning the Indy 500 will put him among the greats in the series.

“I can’t believe it! What an amazing day, what an amazing race!” said Palou.

“It’s amazing to be here and win. There are some moments I felt really good in the race but I didn’t know if I could pass Marcus or not but I made it happen.

“My first oval win and there’s no better place to do it.”

After five Safety Cars in the first half of the race, the final 94 laps were run under green flag conditions.

Ericsson had the better strategy as he was able to make his last pit stop later than the other front-runners, with 28 laps to go, so emerged in the lead but Palou fought past David Malukas, who finished third.

His overtake on Ericsson will go down as one of the most important in his career and he expertly held off the Swede while in the dirty air of traffic during the last 14 laps.

Josef Newgarden was looking to become the first driver to win the Indy 500 three times in a row but suffered a fuel pressure issue in the second half of the race.

Pole-sitter Robert Shwartzman dramatically crashed into his own pit crew.

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