Thrilling IndyCar provides perfect tonic to F1's desert of entertainment
Marcus Ericsson won out at IndyCar's Florida round in a chaotic race which ended in crashes for Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin
The grid for the 102nd Indianapolis 500
Ed Carpenter became the 10th driver to collect three or more pole positions as he aced qualifying at 230.088 mph on May 20.
His four-lap average of 229.618 mph eclipsed that of runner-up Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud, whose team-mate Will Power joins them on the front row.
Josef Newgarden, defending IndyCar champion, qualified fourth followed by Sébastien Bourdais.
Ed Carpenter pair Spencer Pigot and Danica Patrick took sixth and seventh, respectively.
Hélio Castroneves, who set the pace for Penske in practice, settled for eighth.
Alexander Rossi, second in the drivers’ standings, qualified 32nd.
James Hinchcliffe, fifth in the standings, failed to qualify having been bumped out of the top 33, joined by Pippa Mann who will make this Indy 500 her last. However, Hinchcliffe may join Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for the race and IndyCar could widen the field to accommodate 35 drivers as in 1979 and 1997.
The race will be shown live in the UK on BT Sport 1 from 3.30pm on Sunday, May 27
Position | Driver | Team | Engine | Four lap average (mph) | Gap |
1 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevrolet | 229.618 | 2min 36.7818sec |
2 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 228.761 | +0.5878sec |
3 | Will Power | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 228.607 | +0.6939sec |
4 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 228.405 | +0.8333sec |
5 | Sébastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda | 228.142 | +1.0147sec |
6 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevrolet | 228.107 | +1.0390sec |
7 | Danica Patrick | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevrolet | 228.09 | +1.0508sec |
8 | Hélio Castroneves | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 227.859 | +1.2106sec |
9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 227.262 | +1.6258sec |
10 | Tony Kanaan | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Chevrolet | 227.664 | +1.3460sec |
11 | Matheus Leist | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Chevrolet | 227.571 | +1.4104sec |
12 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta | Honda | 227.288 | +1.6076sec |
13 | Zachary Claman | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda | 226.999 | +1.8090sec |
14 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Honda | 226.788 | +1.9571sec |
15 | Charlie Kimball | Carlin | Chevrolet | 226.657 | +2.0486sec |
16 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Honda | 226.557 | +2.1185sec |
17 | Kyle Kaiser | Juncos Racing | Chevrolet | 226.398 | +2.2301sec |
18 | Robert Wickens | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Honda | 226.296 | +2.3017sec |
19 | James Davison | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Chevrolet | 226.255 | +2.3310sec |
20 | Max Chilton | Carlin | Chevrolet | 226.212 | +2.3612sec |
21 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Honda | 226.048 | +2.4767sec |
22 | Gabby Chaves | Harding Racing | Chevrolet | 226.007 | +2.5056sec |
23 | Stefan Wilson | Andretti Autosport | Honda | 225.863 | +2.6071sec |
24 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | Chevrolet | 225.823 | +2.6353sec |
25 | Zach Veach | Andretti Autosport | Honda | 225.748 | +2.6878sec |
26 | Oriol Servia | Scuderia Corsa | Honda | 225.699 | +2.7226sec |
27 | J.R. Hildebrand | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | Chevrolet | 225.418 | +2.9214sec |
28 | Jay Howard | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Honda | 225.388 | +2.9427sec |
29 | Ed Jones | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 225.362 | +2.9615sec |
30 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Honda | 225.327 | +2.9861sec |
31 | Jack Harvey | Michael Shank Racing | Honda | 225.254 | +3.0375sec |
32 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | Honda | 224.935 | +3.2644sec |
33 | Conor Daly | Dale Coyne Racing | Honda | 224.429 | +3.6255sec |
Marcus Ericsson won out at IndyCar's Florida round in a chaotic race which ended in crashes for Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin
IndyCar might be running semi-vintage machinery, but the racing excitement and driver pool is second to none – in his season preview Preston Lerner asks if 2023 can be its rebirth
Under Zak Brown's leadership, McLaren has once more taken an adventurous view of the motor sport world – can it have the same success as under Bruce?
Romain Grosjean has signed for Lamborghini to join the Hypercar revolution, as he looks to combine an IndyCar campaign with endurance racing. "We can still be like those drivers who used to jump from one car to another," he tells Damien Smith