Motor racing-Castroneves fastest at Indy as Patrick makes field
ByReuters
Published 19/05/2018 at 22:44 GMT
May 19 (Reuters) - Three-times winner Helio Castroneves topped qualifying speeds for the May 27 Indianapolis 500 as Danica Patrick assured herself of a spot in the final race of her career on a rainy Saturday at the famed Brickyard.
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Brazilian Castroneves, winner in 2001, 2002 and 2009, powered his Penske to a four-lap average speed of 228.919 mph during a morning run as he prepared to chase a fifth Indy 500 pole on Sunday.
The top nine fastest times from Saturday will stage a shootout on Sunday for pole position.
Patrick will be among those nine as the only woman in the field sneaked into the Fast Nine at ninth at 227.610 mph.
Team Penske have three of the top four positions heading into Sunday's shootout, Castroneves, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud third and Will Power fourth.
Former pole winner Ed Carpenter broke up the group, finishing second fastest.
Castroneves, who has moved over to race sports cars for Roger Penske and no longer competes full time on the IndyCar circuit, signalled he is ready to fight for an elusive fourth win.
In more than a century of racing at the famed speedway only three men - A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears - have finished the 500 on Victory Lane four times and with a win next Sunday Castroneves would become the first non-American to join that exclusive club.
With 35 cars battling for 33 spots on the starting grid, Bump Day was filled with tension, drama and a one big shock as Canadian James Hinchcliffe failed to qualify.
Hinchcliffe, who after a near-fatal crash in qualifying for the 2015 race came back to grab pole in 2016, was left frustrated sitting in the cockpit of his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda as the clock clicked down, denying him one last attempt at qualifying.
"It's devastating in every way possible," Hinchcliffe said. "We have three cars in the show but unfortunately the fourth one didn't make it but we win as team and lose as a team.
"It is crazy to be here after where we were two years ago. We'll learn from this.”
There was also disappointment for Briton Pippa Mann, who got out ahead of Hinchcliffe for her final shot but could not coax enough speed out of her Dale Coyne Racing Honda to make the field. (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto and Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Ed Osmond)
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