It has nothing to do with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Vin Diesel…
If you in the past month not under a bandenstapel lived, you will be aware dt Fernando Alonso this year to participate in the Indy 500. The Spaniard reveals that he has a healthy dose of cojones. He walks at least two major risks through participation.
First of all go there with some regularity, sometimes riders death in the IndyCar series. Not that it every month once touch is like the F1 of the ’70s, but still. Of all raceklasses at a high level at this moment it is undoubtedly the most dangerous.
Second, it has Alonso to do with the harm risk. The eyes of the whole world are on him. This fact was evident by the record number of people that watched the livestreams of his first sessions at the Brickyard (Liberty Media, pay attention to you?). But what if he not doing well? He would not be the first F1 driver who painfully experience that racing on a oval yet a totally different discipline.
Until now, Alonso however big impression in Indianapolis. Just a few of the ornithologist will have a problem with Alonso’s performance on the ancient slopes. Slowly but surely he built together with the team of Andretti speed during the first four test days. It eventually led to a round of more than 231 miles per hour on Friday. With that speed would Alonso even for The Fast Nine. But what does that actually mean?
Well, yesterday went to the riders after four days of training on the track for the first real qualifying session. The riders of the first nine were, are locked in for the first nine starting positions. There at Indianapolis with three cars next to each other (flying) is started, comes down to the first three rows on the grid. The numbers 10-33 after yesterday no longer entitled to these positions.
Could Alonso it’s a trick cops to get to his first Indy 500 at the start of the first nine? Yes! The Spaniard planted himself eventually as the seventh, with an average speed of 230,034 mph. Oval specialist Ed Carpenter set the fastest time, for ex-F1 hero Takuma Sato. With Alexander Rossi on P5 there are, incidentally, three men with F1-races on their CV at the first nine.
The other three ex-F1 drivers in the field had for various reasons a lesser day. Max Chilton finished as twelfth. One Pablo Montoya had, like most of his Penske teammates, the speed and time being, there is only eighteenth. Sebastien Bourdais finally appeared after two laps correctly with the fastest time of the day to address for Dale Coyne Racing, but then this happened:
Bourdais ran through the crash several fractures in his hip and pelvis. It shows yet again how thin the line is between hero and zero in this race.
Token female competitor Pippa Mann wears the red lantern with the 33rd place. Today can however still change in the future, because tonight are the following kwalificatiesessies on the program, in which both the numbers 1-9 as 10-33 their final gridposities. A brief overview of the first qualification-day to check you below.
The full results:
1 Ed Carpenter 230.468
2 Takuma Sato 230.382
3 Scott Dixon 230.333
4 JR Hildebrand 230.205
5 Alexander Rossi 230.148
6 Will Power 230.072
7 Fernando Alonso 230.034
8 Tony Canaan 230.007
9 Marco Andretti 229.924
10 Ed Jones 229.717
11 Charlie Kimball 229.713
12 Max Chilton 229.636
13 Ryan Hunter-Reay 229.533
14 Helio Castroneves 229.390
15 Mikhail Aleshin 229.217
16 Graham Rahal 228.835
17 Josef Newgarden 228.696
18 Juan Pablo Montoya 228.645
19 James Hinchcliffe 228.557
20 Simon Pagenaud 228.393
21 Sage Karam 227.943
22 Jay Howard 227.853
23 Carlos Munoz 227.438
24 Oriol Servia 227.150
25 Jack Harvey 226.894
26 Gabby Chaves 226.875
27 Conor Daly 225.912
28 Sebastian Saavedra 225.815
29 Spencer Pigot 223.631
30 Buddy Lazier 221.427
31 Pippa Mann 219.282
Sebastien Bourdais – kablabber