Indy 500 Qualifying: Andretti Autosport, Honda rule in first runs

Despite running 28^th and therefore with the disadvantage of a far hotter track than his principal opponents, Marco Andretti – delivered the only 232mph lap of the session so far, shed 1.4mph across his four laps, but edged the previous best average of Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.021mph.

Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe – in his third and last outing of the season (for now) in the Genesys car – completed the top four.

One of the surprises of the session was Rinus VeeKay in the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet who was admittedly an early runner, but made the most of it to outpace Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.

Another deeply impressive performance came from Alex Palou of Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, who shrugged off the slick track conditions of a hot afternoon to deliver P7 – ahead of all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars that had been blessed with the first, second and fifth runs of the day.

Josef Newgarden is top Team Penske-Chevrolet but only 13^th, while teammate Will Power went in a different set up direction by stripping downforce, but while this worked on Lap 1, his speed drop off was far greater. The 2018 Indy winner currently sits only 22^nd, albeit ahead of his other teammates, fellow 500 winners Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves who were unlucky enough to draw a low number and ran in some of the worst conditions.

Fernando Alonso’s Ruoff Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy didn’t appear to misbehave – unlike, say, J.R. Hildebrand and Castroneves who had to save some alarming moments – but he currently sits in 26^th.

Qualifying attempts can continue until 4.50pm ET, before positions 10-33 are set, and the participants in the Fast Nine battle are decided.

Indy 500 Initial qualifying runs