De Ferran, who has died aged 56, beat his great friend, and fellow Brazilian Team Penske team-mate, Helio Castroneves by 0.299s after a fierce battle for honours in America’s biggest open-wheel race.
The duo saw off the challenges of Andretti Green Racing’s Tony Kanaan and Michael Andretti, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Tomas Scheckter, de Ferran decisively grabbing the lead from Castroneves in traffic with 30 laps remaining.
Despite immense pressure from Castroneves, who was already a two-time 500 winner at this point, and suffering shoulder cramps in the closing stages, it was the crowning glory on de Ferran’s brilliant open-wheel career. He blended his turn of speed with a remarkable racing intellect, that served him so well that day.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Winner Gil de Ferran, Penske-Toyota
“When you’re racing, you’re so focused on the action of driving and trying to make good decisions and so forth, to deal with the pressure of leading a race like this, you really have to park your emotions to the side,” he told Motorsport.com of his approach to winning the 500. “You need to stay as rational as you can.
“It took me a while to realise what it actually meant. Rick Mears said it best to me straight after the race ‘you won’t understand this for another two or three weeks and then it will hit you’. And that’s exactly what happened.”
He retired from IndyCar at the end of that season, having bagged two titles – under its CART guise – in 2000 and 2001.
De Ferran – who was born in Paris, France – started karting in Brazil after his family moved there in his early years.
But he would truly make his name in the United Kingdom, following the trend set by Emerson Fittipaldi for young Brazilian racers. He raced in Formula Ford, Opel/Vauxhall Lotus and Formula 3 – winning the British F3 title in 1992 for Paul Stewart Racing.
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Gil de Ferran and David Coulthard
He graduated to Formula 3000, where he’d win three times across two seasons, but that meant he just fell short of making it to Formula 1 – despite test runs with Williams and Arrows – and he diverted his attentions to America in 1995.
De Ferran burst on to the IndyCar Series scene in one of its most competitive eras, winning the final race of his debut season in his bright yellow Pennzoil Reynard for Jim Hall Racing at Laguna Seca – up against the likes of
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