The first day of Indianapolis 500 Qualifications is in the books and it was a good one.
The day started off awfully rough with rain and dampers delaying opening practice until the early afternoon. But the show the Verizon IndyCar Series stars put on when they finally hit the track was worth the wait.
Max Chilton's day ended early when in the Group 1 practice the car got out from under him and spun into the SAFER Barrier. He was okay, but his car was not. His backup car will be ready for him to qualify Sunday.
The other incident of the day was an odd one. On Pippa Mann's first lap her right rear end fence buckled, losing downforce, sending the No. 63 Honda into a spin. Mann actually did a pretty amazing job of somewhat saving the car and only making slight contact with the nose to the outside Turn 2 wall. Her car continued to spin and came to a stop on the backstretch.
With only 33 drivers entered into the race there wasn't bumping in and out of the field, but there was bumping from the Fast 9. The last hour proved to be a packed one with multiple bumps from the field. Just seconds before the 7pm gun fired Mikhael Aleshin took to the track for the last qualification attempt of the day. The Russian was successful, bumping rookie Alexander Rossi who had been in the Fast 9 all day.
The Fast 9 moving on to run for tomorrow's pole:
1) James Hinchcliffe
2) Ryan Hunter-Reay
3) Will Power
4) Helio Castroneves
5) Townsend Bell
6) Josef Newgarden
7) Mikhail Aleshin
8) Carlos Munoz
9) Simon Pagenaud
Tomorrow's qualifications will run in reverse order of today's results. Each driver will have only one attempt. Positions 10-33 will be determined with the day culminating with the Fast 9 qualifying in reverse order as well.
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