Larson distances himself in his first attempt, which was abandoned after several laps. Image: Kevin Dejewski
The preliminary qualifying round for the Indianapolis 500 began on Saturday morning, with a six-hour window for drivers to complete their four fastest laps on the 2.5-mile circuit.
At the start of the qualifying session, each driver had the opportunity to make one attempt in a random order. Then the track was open for any driver who wanted to make a second attempt.
After a full rotation in order, Team Penske dominated the top positions. Will Power reached the highest average speed of 233.758 MPH over four laps, with Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden securing second and third place, respectively.
The three drivers virtually secured their spots in the Fast 12 shootout for the pole position on Sunday, even with over four hours remaining in Saturday’s session.
However, the real story lies in the drivers who struggled during their first attempt, and there were some.
Rinus VeeKay had the worst luck, spinning in Turn 3 and colliding with the SAFER outer barrier on the left side of his car.
Fortunately, the crash occurred late in the turn, resulting in a less severe impact with the wall than expected.
VeeKay slid across the track in his ECR Chevy and hit the wall again in Turn 4 before coming to a stop.
Exiting the vehicle, the Dutchman appeared to favor his leg, but expressed his readiness to return to the track as soon as his team could prepare a backup chassis.
In addition to VeeKay, the entire Arrow McLaren team faced difficulties during the early races of the day.
Troubles began when Kyle Larson had to abort his race on the third lap due to a Chevy engine-related error appearing on his dashboard.
A Chevy representative stated that Larson will not need a new engine, but the team must resolve the issue before allowing him to make a second attempt in his initial race.
Later in the morning, Callum Ilott completed a race in car #6, but had his time invalidated after an unsuccessful technical inspection.
At the time, Ilott was comfortably within the top half of the field, and the team had to correct the wheel displacement issue that violated regulations so that he could race again later in the day.
As a result of this incident, Pato O’Ward chose to withdraw from the lineup before even attempting his first race, and his car was returned to the garage without registering a time.
The team deemed it necessary to correct, or at least check, the wheel displacement on O’Ward’s car, as it was set up similarly to Ilott’s car.
Alexander Rossi also chose not to make his guaranteed first race, leaving all four Arrow McLaren cars without a registered time at this stage.
All drivers still have the opportunity to make additional races until the 17:50 time limit, providing over four hours to resolve the issues encountered during the early part of the day.
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