Patrick Makes History the Hard Way

Patrick became the first woman to lead the prestigious event, and she is the highest placed female in the race's history. Janet Guthrie held the previous best, with ninth place finish in 1978.

Patrick had an eventful race, making some mistakes - which she later described as "showing I'm a rookie".

Early in the race she stalled in the pits and slipped back to 16th, but she battled back to the front - only to spin on a restart with 40 laps to go.

Patrick's front wing was damaged but the stop for repairs gave her time for a full methanol fuel fill. This allowed her to gamble on fuel strategy and top-off on fuel, then jumping to the front of the pack when the rest of the field pitted.

However, she eventually dropped to fourth as she was forced to conserve fuel.

The 23-year-old Patrick fought back tears after the race, saying: "For a second I thought we were going to win.

"I think I showed that I was a rookie with some of the things that happened. But I think I showed that my on-track performance is all there."