Penske dominate Indy 500 qualifying but Ericsson not in race yet

Penske repeated their Friday form on the first day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, claiming the top three places with ease.

Will Power set the top average speed with a four-lap run of 376.197kph (233.758mph). Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden joined him in the top three.

The leading 12 qualifiers will all run again tomorrow to determine their starting order within the top dozen places. The only rookie among that contingent is NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, who impressed by setting the sixth-fastest speed for McLaren, running at 374.372kph (232.563mph).

His team mate Alexander Rossi took fourth, while Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood was the only Honda-powered driver inside the top six.

The last driver to claim a place among the top 12 was Rinus VeeKay. The Carpenter driver bounced back from a crash, grabbed the chance to make the penultimate run of the day and vaulted up to 11th place, behind Felix Roseqnqvist, Santino Ferrucci, Takuma Sato and Pato O’Ward. Ryan Hunter-Reay claimed the final place for DRR-Cusick.

Veekay’s last-gasp run cost Colton Herta his place in the top 12. He therefore led the drivers who qualified between 13th and 30th places, who all know where they will line up for next week’s 108th running of the race.

Four drivers will face off in the last chance qualifying session tomorrow for their chance to claim the last three places on the starting grid. They include Graham Rahal, who will be suffering flashbacks to his failure to qualify for last year’s race, before he gained a spot as a substitute for the injured Stefan Wilson. He was the last driver to run today, but was unable to escape the bottom four.

The biggest surprise among those yet to qualify is 2022 race winner Marcus Ericsson. He suffered a heavy crash earlier in the week and failed to make the cut after a series of attempts in his Andretti machine.

Rookie Nolan Siegel, who flipped his car in a crash yesterday, gave up his last attempt to qualify with 14 minutes remaining. Katherine Legge, who made a string of runs fractionally slower than the 371.919kph (231.100mph) of Pietro Fittipaldi, also has one last chance to claim her place in the race.

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Qualifying result

P.	No.	Driver	Team	Engine
1	12	Will Power	Penske	Chevrolet
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	Penske	Chevrolet
3	2	Josef Newgarden	Penske	Chevrolet
4	7	Alexander Rossi	McLaren	Chevrolet
5	22	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti	Honda
6	15	Kyle Larson	McLaren/Hendrick	Chevrolet
7	29	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank	Honda
8	13	Santino Ferrucci	Foyt	Chevrolet
9	31	Takuma Sato	RLL	Honda
10	5	Pato O’Ward	McLaren	Chevrolet
11	18	Rinus VeeKay	Carpenter	Chevrolet
12	19	Ryan Hunter-Reay	DRR-Cusick	Chevrolet
13	21	Colton Herta	Andretti/Curb-Agajanian	Honda
14	10	Alex Palou	Ganassi	Honda
15	6	Callum Ilott	McLaren	Chevrolet
16	11	Marcus Armstrong	Ganassi	Honda
17	17	Ed Carpenter	Carpenter	Chevrolet
18	4	Kyffin Simpson	Ganassi	Honda
19	34	Marco Andretti	Andretti/Curb-Agajanian	Honda
20	06	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank	Honda
21	9	Scott Dixon	Ganassi	Honda
22	33	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger	Chevrolet
23	26	Sting Ray Robb	Foyt	Chevrolet
24	25	Christian Rasmussen	Carpenter	Chevrolet
25	30	Tom Blomqvist	Meyer Shank	Honda
26	32	Romain Grosjean	Juncos Hollinger	Chevrolet
27	8	Linus Lundqvist	Ganassi	Honda
28	27	Christian Lundgaard	RLL	Honda
29	20	Conor Daly	DRR-Cusick	Chevrolet
30	24	Pietro Fittipaldi	RLL	Honda
31	23	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti	Honda
32	16	Nolan Siegel	Coyne	Honda
33	28	Katherine Legge	Coyne/WR	Honda
34	14	Graham Rahal	RLL	Honda

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