Motor Racing / Indianapolis 500: Mansell caught cold by burst of Fittipaldi: Formula One champion wins spurs with third-place finish after Brazilian's experience proves decisive at restart

A FORMULA ONE world champion won the Indianapolis 500-mile race yesterday, but it was not the one who had made all the noise in the long crescendo of publicity leading up to the event. Emerson Fittipaldi, a double grand prix champion in the early 1970s, outfoxed Nigel Mansell, the reigning title-holder, to take his second 500 in one of the most exciting races ever held on the venerable two- and-a-half-mile oval Speedway. Separating Fittipaldi's Penske-Chevrolet from the third-placed Mansell, with the blink of an eye between all three, was Arie Luyendyk of the Netherlands, another former winner.

In the end, the first five cars were covered by the length of the finishing straight on the last of the 200 laps. Just over three hours of intense racing at an average of 157mph ended with an enthralling sprint for the chequered flag, in which experience counted for almost everything.

Mansell could have won this, the 77th running of the Indy 500. His critics will say he should have won, and that he threw it away when perfectly placed to become the first reigning world champion to win the race at his first attempt. They will point to a grotesque error when, leading the race just before half-distance, he overshot his pit while coming in for a scheduled stop and had to be wheeled back by the mechanics - the sort of mistake that cost him dear in the years before he won his championship.

It was not to be the only time blood rushed to his head. Chasing Luyendyk hard with eight laps to go, he came out of Turn Two too close to the wall and smacked both right-side wheels against the concrete, raising sparks from his wheel rims and leaving huge black marks behind him. At something over 220mph, it was a hair- raising incident. He held the car steady, cruised through the ensuing yellow-flag period and was probably not in the best shape to resume the chase for the final six racing laps.

The race's most critical moment, though, had come a few laps earlier, at the end of another yellow-flag period, when the leaders had closed up behind the pace car while the Lola of Lyn St James was towed away with a blown Ford V6. Again, Mansell was in the lead when the caution lights came on. But when the green flag was waved to allow racing to resume, Fittipaldi and Luyendyk had closed up behind the Englishman, who found himself overwhelmed by both of them as the cars accelerated into Turn One.

'I goofed there,' Mansell said afterwards. 'I thought I'd got on the gas fast enough. I just didn't judge it well. The team did a fantastic job. All the mistakes that were made today were made by me. It's my first race on an oval track, and all the procedures here are so different to me. I'm not going to make excuses.'

The race lived up to its history. It was a magnificent piece of theatre, from the explosion announcing the opening of the Speedway gates at five o'clock in the morning, to the arrival of the 46-year-old Fittipaldi in Victory Lane.

It was not the closest finish in the Speedway's history (last year Al Unser Jnr edged out Scott Goodyear by 43 thousandths of a second), but it was nevertheless a race of records. The first five finishers were all born outside the United States: a Brazilian, a Dutchman, an Englishman, an Italian-born American (Mansell's team- mate, Mario Andretti), and a second Brazilian, Raul Boesel. There were 24 cars running at the finish out of the 33 cars that had started, beating by a long way the record of 16 set in 1959.

This was probably due to the measures taken this year to reduce the speed of the cars, after some horrifying accidents. There were fewer accidents than usual yesterday, and a byproduct was a reduction of stress on the machinery. Four cars were involved in crashes, but only one driver, Roberto Guerrero, of Colombia, suffered slight bruising when he and Jeff Andretti slid into the wall together. Mario Andretti's youngest son, returning for his first race since breaking his legs in the 500 last year, was uninjured, as were Danny Sullivan and Paul Tracy, who also hit the wall in separate incidents.

It was obvious on the first lap that all the drivers had taken to heart the chief steward's instruction not to make rash manoeuvres into Turn One. Whereas in previous years the pack could race through three abreast, on this occasion they filed through in line astern, as responsible as a bunch of motorists passing a police car on a crowded motorway. But that was no indication of the excitement to come.

Boesel took the lead at the start, bringing his Lola-Ford down into the racing groove ahead of the similar cars of Luyendyk and Mario Andretti, with the Lola-Chevy of Al Unser Jnr in fourth place and a highly circumspect Mansell in ninth. Andretti was up to second by lap 16, when the yellow flags came out for the first time after the other British driver, Jim Crawford, had spun his Lola-Chevy. When the order settled down again Andretti was still in the lead, with Mansell, in the second Newman-Haas Lola, up to fourth.

Mansell showed that he had got the hang of overtaking in the difficult conditions of an oval track when he shot under Fittipaldi to take third place on the 48th lap, and half a dozen laps later he was duelling with his team-mate, passing the senior Andretti and then taking the lead for less than a lap before making his second pit stop for fuel and tyres. By the 66th lap Andretti and Mansell were at it again, this time for second place behind Goodyear's Lola-Ford, with no quarter requested or given when the Englishman swept past the 1969 winner and 1978 world champion.

On lap 70 Mansell inherited the lead, holding it for the next 21 laps, looking composed and comfortable as he pulled out an 11-second lead on Andretti. But the tension in the cockpit of the No 5 Lola was betrayed when he stormed into the pits, overshot, and caused mass confusion among his mechanics, who had to manhandle the car back into position. The stop lasted 42 seconds, twice as long as Andretti's at the same stage, and Mansell resumed the race in seventh place.

During the third quarter of the race Mansell hoisted himself back into contention. He led for a lap before a pit stop on the 130th lap, but then had to work his way up again from seventh. On lap 173 he was waiting behind Andretti and Fittipaldi when the green flags came out, and managed to fly past them into the lead under acceleration. For the next seven laps, until St James blew up and the yellows were waved, the race seemed to be his. But the Indianapolis Motor Speedway rewards experience, patience and cunning, qualities of which, in the 15 minutes when it really counted, Emerson Fittipaldi showed himself the master.

Mansell, who leads the IndyCar championship standings from Andretti, said he was relieved to have finished the race at all after swiping the concrete. 'I hit the wall, I mean hard,' he said. ' It was a fantastic race, and all credit to the rules and regulations. You probably had 10 or more drivers today who could have won.'

RESULTS FROM THE INDIANAPOLIS 500

1 E Fittipaldi (Bra) 1993 Penske-Chevrolet, 200 laps, 157.207mph; 2 A Luyendyk (Neth) 1993 Lola- Ford Cosworth, 200; 3 N Mansell (GB) 1993 Lola- Ford Cosworth, 200; 4 R Boesel (Bra) 1993 Lola- Ford Cosworth, 200; 5 M Andretti (US) 1993 Lola- Ford Cosworth, 200; 6 S Brayton (US) 1993 Lola- Ford Cosworth, 200; 7 S Goodyear (Can) 1993 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 200; 8 Al Unser Jnr (US) 1993 Lola-Chevrolet C, 200; 9 T Fabi (It) 1993 Lola-Chevrolet C, 200; 10 John Andretti (US) 1992 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 200; 11 S Johansson (Swe) 1993 Penske- Chevrolet C, 199; 12 Al Unser Snr (US) 1993 Lola- Chevrolet C, 199; 13 J Vasser (US) 1992 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 198; 14 K Cogan (US) 1993 Lola-Chevrolet C, 198; 15 D Jones (US) 1992 Lola-Chevrolet A, 197; 16 E Cheever (US) 1992 Lola-Menard, 197; 17 G Bettenhausen (US) 1993 Lola-Menard, 197; 18 H Matsushita (Japan) 1993 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 197; 19 S Gregoire (Fr) 1992 Lola-Buick, 195; 20 T Bettenhausen (US) 1993 Penske-Chevrolet C, 195; 21 W T Ribbs (US) 1992 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 194; 22 D Theys (Bel) 1991 Lola-Buick, 193; 23 D Dobson (US) 1992 Lola-Chevrolet A, 193; 24 J Crawford (GB) 1993 Lola-Chevrolet C, 192.

Retirements: 25 Lyn St James (US) 1993 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 176, blown engine; 26 G Brabham (Aus) 1993 Lola-Menard, 174, engine; 27 R Gordon (US) 1993 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 165, accident; 28 R Guerrero (US) 1993 Lola-Chevrolet C, 125, accident; 29 Jeff Andretti (US) 1992 Lola-Buick, 124, accident; 30 P Tracy (Can) 1993 Penske-Chevrolet C, 94, accident; 31 S Fox (US) 1992 Lola-Buick, 64, blown engine; 32 N Piquet (Bra) 1993 Lola- Menard, 38, blown engine; 33 D Sullivan (US) 1993 Lola-Chevrolet C, 29, accident.

Time of race: 3hr 10min 49.860sec. Margin of victory: 2.8sec. Fastest lap: 214.807mph Fittipaldi, lap 198. Number of lead changes: 21, among 12 drivers.

Lap leaders: Boesel 1-17, Gregoire 18, Cogan 19-22, Unser Snr, 23-31, Mario Andretti 32-46, Luyendyk 47, Mario Andretti 48, Luyendyk 49-57, Unser Snr, 58-64, John Andretti 65, Gordon 66-67, Goodyear 68-69, Mansell 70-91, Mario Andretti 92-128, Mansell 129-130, Luyendyk 131-134, Unser Jnr, 135-151, Mario Andretti 152-168, Goodyear 169-171, Mario Andretti 172-174, Mansell 175-184, Fittipaldi 185-200.

(Photograph omitted)