After rain washed out much of the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500 all the drivers had just one run to set their fast laps.
The rain washed all the rubber of the previous days running off of the circuit, making conditions tricky for the drivers. Tony Kanaan set the early pace, but was soon superseded by Scott Dixon and Will Power. Fernando Alonso was the 16th car to go out and did a terrific job to go third fastest at the time.
He certainly didn’t leave much on the table – just look at how close he got to the wall!
Could've gone a bit closer, Fernando. pic.twitter.com/hYFNXAt4Mw
— Ky (@FiftyBuckss) May 20, 2017
He was obviously feeling confident as he was among the drivers who ran the lowest downforce for his qualifying run, and it seems it definitely paid off.
By the end of the session he’d dropped to seventh after some of the later runners went faster, but that’s still good enough to see him go through to the ‘Fast Nine’ shootout on Sunday, which also guarantees him a starting spot on the first three rows for next week’s race.
Alonso’s four-lap average was 230.034mph, whereas the fastest run (set by Ed Carpenter) was 230.468mph. Tomorrow Fernando will be battling Carpenter for pole, alongside other Fast Nine qualifiers Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon, JR Hildebrand, Alexander Rossi, Will Power, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti.
Not bad for a rookie, Fernando. Not bad at all!
