When Gil de Ferran sealed victory in his final attempt at the Indianapolis 500 in 2003, it crowned a career that epitomised the remarkable competitive nature and great racing acumen of a man whose sudden death last week at the age of 56 shocked the sport.
In taking victory at Indy, de Ferran beat his great friend, fellow Brazilian and Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves by 0.299s after a fierce battle for honours in America’s biggest open-wheel race. The duo had seen off the challenges of Tony Kanaan, Michael Andretti and Tomas Scheckter before deciding the win between themselves in the closing stages. De Ferran decisively grabbed the lead from Castroneves in traffic with 30 laps remaining, and nailed the subsequent restarts in a caution-punctuated race.
After immense pressure from Castroneves (who was already a two-time 500 winner at this point and bidding for
