With rain affecting the early running, drivers only got one shot at qualifying and Fernando Alonso proved once again that he was a driver of many talents when his first lap out put him on provisional pole with a 230.337.
However, his average time after completing his run of four laps was 230.034 which left him in P7 behind Provisional pole sitter Ed Carpenter, Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon, JR Hildebrand, Alexander Rossi and Will Power.
“Its definitely a unique race. It's amazing from a driver's point of view,” Alonso said. “I think we did more or less okay, we should be quicker tomorrow in the fast 9. I think I have had enough practice but there is still a week to the race. I need to keep talking to the guys about things that could happen in the race.”
Sebastian Bourdais brought out the yellow flags after crashing into turn two late in the session. Safety marshals were on the scene 11 seconds after the Frenchman hit the wall. He never lost consciousness and was awake and alert when he left the track for the local hospital, purely for checks.
Alexander Rossi, winner of last year's race, was held up as a result. He had a good first lap, good enough for the middle of row one, however several runners after him knocked the American driver back to fifth.
The fast nine will take place tomorrow and will include the following drivers...
