Indy 500 Qualification: Alonso Reaches 'Fast 9', Bourdais Injured

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Indy 500 Saturday Quali.jpg

As qualification begins at a stormy Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Fernando Alonso has booked his place in the 'Fast Nine' qualifying shootout and keeps alive the dream of a debut Indy 500 Pole Position.


With the initial exchanges over and each driver having completed their own four laps runs, it was left to veteran driver Ed Carpenter to stand atop of the timesheets at the close of first qualification on Saturday.

As qualification completes the top nine drivers of the session now move into todays 'Fast Nine' shootout and Alonso is understandably delighted to finish running in P7 yesterday, ending with an average lap of 230:034mph and securing himself a minimum top 9 position on the grid for the race itself.

Alonso Indy 500.jpg


Impressive as he was at Indy, the two time Formula One World Champion admitted he has more speed to come in the McLaren Honda Andretti car when the final pole position shootout begins today:

“The laps I could improve a bit, I was not extracting the maximum from the car,” said Alonso. “I keep learning. Tomorrow, I will use that lesson and be quicker.

“The team did a fantastic job to put me in a car that was able to run 230[mph laps], but there is still more to come. I didn’t maximize the potential of it in Laps 3 and 4.”

Unfortunately the session was marred by an awful accident for former Grand Prix driver and multiple IndyCar champion Sebastian Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing entry, with the Indy 500 practice pace setting Frenchman reported to have suffered from "multiple fractures" to his pelvis and right hip. Bourdais is understood to have remained conscious throughout the extraction process and is undergoing surgery at the IU Health Methodist Hospital today

Bourdais Indy 500 Tweet.png


The fast nine qualification session will take place today (Sunday) following the final grid setting session for positions 10 - 33 which takes place early Sunday afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Fast Nine Indy 500 Qualifying Drivers
  1. Ed Carpenter - 230.468 mph
  2. Takuma Sato - 230.382 mph
  3. Scott Dixon - 230.333 mph
  4. JR Hildebrand - 230.205 mph
  5. Alexander Rossi - 230.148 mph
  6. Will Power - 230.072 mph
  7. Fernando Alonso - 230.034 mph
  8. Tony Kanaan - 230.007 mph
  9. Marco Andretti - 229.924 mph

For more motorsports news and discussion head on over to the Motorsports Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment and join in the discussion today!

Looking forward to Indy 500 time? Who do you think will secure the pole? Are you impressed with Alonso's debut running so far? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
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Stuart Gillard

Sir Ropey
I've got to say I've not heard of an injury like that before, I wonder if his seat was a good enough fit and his belts were done up tight enough, almost sounds like his body had too much free movement within the car, I do hope he is ok though as that was a pretty hard hit.
 
I hope that kind of shows some people (not on here as such just general comments I've read) that Indy is not "easy" it can hurt pretty damn hard when things go wrong. Wishing Bourdais a speedy recovery, superb driver and a great guy. He hit the wall with the front corner at almost 240mph. If it hadn't been for the SAFER barrier he probably would've had leg injuries as well. Slightly more side on maybe and the sidepod would've taken more of the impact but he's a lucky guy.

On the other hand I remember the early IRL cars and their very solid gearboxes with not much In the way of crash protection, those were nasty pieces of kit, if you went in backwards it was either broken back, or head injuries. Not nice at all. I was glad when they got rid of those.

As @slingshot64 mentions above, fingers crossed they all have a safe day today and for the rest of the event and well done to Fernando for making the shoot-out. My only concern now is Honda are mileage limiting their teams which is bit worrying...but fingers crossed no problems.
 
Christ! ...that looked horrible.
There was almost no speed reduction as he went into the wall.
The car initially started to scrub a bit as it turned, but as it hooked up again during the counter-steer, the wheels went straight and momentum carried it into the barrier.
The 'G' meter must have gone off-scale for that accident.
These are really the worst kinds of impacts.
Best wishes to Bourdais..
 
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So, why havent the americans made those walls of a softer material by now?

Most crashes with the wall happen at a very shallow angle and the car bounces off the hard concrete walls and slows down gradually. A soft wall would "grab" the car and create much bigger g forces, and possibly spinning the car instantly causing twisted neck injuries.

Unfortunately this crash was at a nasty angle and the concrete wall is going to hurt :(
 
I've got to say I've not heard of an injury like that before, I wonder if his seat was a good enough fit and his belts were done up tight enough, almost sounds like his body had too much free movement within the car, I do hope he is ok though as that was a pretty hard hit.

I dont think any safety measures, the best seat, the best belts, could sustain something like this crash.
Bourdais is lucky to be alive at all.
This accident was a carbon copy of what happened to Gordon Smiley in 1982, and on that ocasion.....well....history is well know....
Shows how safety came a long way and must be aways a priority.
Even like 5 years ago this crash would most certainly be a fatal one.

And by the way, as far I know, Bourdais hit a soft wall...not a concret wall?
 
He did, yeah. It was a SAFER barrier, not a concrete wall. They work. Without that he'd have even worse injuries.

Will their be a stream of Sundays running?
 

Jan Larsen

Premium
Smileys accident cant really be compared, he had a much less safer car, steeper angle (to the point of headon) and no SAFER barrier.
Surprisingly the tub held up here which is good. It has proven itself in a number of accidents over the recent years.
 

Ole Marius Myrvold

JWB 96-13
Staff
Premium
With that being said. It can be the last IndyCar race Bourdais did. Hope he recover enough to get back in to endurance racing at least!

This is however one of the reasons why I have bigger respect and are in much more awe of drivers in IndyCar than F1!
 
Bourdais injured... definitely understated. More like career ends after near death crash at Indy. From the video he just managed (assuming his skill made the difference) to keep from going straight into the barrier. At the rate and the runoff Indy is one of the most dangerous races left... other than IOM I cant think of another.

Best wishes to him and get well soon.
 
Have to say, I've had the stream on for 15 minutes now and haven't seen a car yet. Only adverts, but with a commentary voice over so I can't hear them. This is a big reason a lot of people don't watch IndyCar and NASCAR now - the coverage is all over the place and advert filled.
 

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