What a Bump Day! On the first day of the Indianapolis 500 qualifying, the emotions were all over the place and the show was on the track. With a surprise in the back, two favorite drivers were out of the 33 contestants that will compete on the starting grid on Sunday. In front, Hélio Castroneves and Ed Carpenter had the best pace and the ninth first classifies will fight for the pole position tomorrow.
James Hinchcliffe has been the loser of the day. A great driver such as the Canadian driver was out of the 33 first classifieds, a hard moment for Hinchcliffe and the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team.
Hinchcliffe, the fifth of the championship, could not find a clean lap to improve his pace. The rain that was falling in Indiana and the vibrations of the car, these problems make him stay out of the first 33 classifieds. The qualification seemed easy and logical for the Canadian who was expected to enter in the Fast9.
However, the #5 car is out of the race. If the Schmidt team wanted star driver to participate, Hinchcliffe still could participate in one of the three single-seaters that passed the qualifying. Robert Wickens, Jay Howard and Jack Harvey are the team mates that could cede the car to the Canadian driver, a decision that is not made yet.
The second great eliminated was Pippa Mann, the second woman who participated in this 102 edition of the Indianapolis 500 miles. The British Daly Coyne Racing was the last one after a qualification in extremis by Oriol Servià. That is because inside the Daly Coyne structure, the weekend may end for Mann here.
Oriol Servià, for the mínimum saved a horrible day for he Catalan. With a destabilized car in the turns, he lost pace driving during the inclination of the track. For that reason despite the good top speed, Servià, could not complete a good time and he was almost eliminated constantly. At the end, he could be the 31th and saved his position for the Indy500.
From behind things were more relaxed, although all were fighting for being in the Fast 9 that was equaled and intense. The veteran Hélio Castroneves was the leader of the qualifying only followed by Ed Carpenter. The American had motives to be happy. That is because the two cars of his team were also on the Top9, and tomorrow will fight for the pole.
The top9 fighting for the pole is: Castroneves, Carpenter, the Penske of de Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Josef Newgarden; Sebastien Bourdais, Spencer Pigot, Scott Dixon and a surprinsing Danica Patrick. We can see a certain domination of Chevrolet with 7 cars versus Honda that has 2.
The Indy500 miles qualifying will be disputed tomorrow. The Fast9 will fight for the pole position, while from 10 to 33 will fix his positions for the race of tomorrow.