F1 News
Alonso hit with electrical issues in Indy 500 practice
- Jake Williams-Smith
Fernando Alonso's mission of winning the Indy 500 started on the wrong foot in practice after his McLaren Chevrolet suffered an undiagnosed electrical issue during opening practice.
The problem forced the Spaniard to spend much of his time on the track massively down on power. He ended the session 32nd of 39 runners.
His top speed on the opening day was just 224.162 miles per hour, massively down on defending Indy 500 winner Will Power's 229.745 mph benchmark.
McLaren could not solve the problems during the day leaving team principal Gil de Ferran frustrated for his team and driver.
“I think the plan here was to run more than we did,” de Ferran told NBC Sports.com.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed and a little frustrated we had the issue in the afternoon. We are trying our best to understand what the problem is. So far, it’s baffling. We lost the entire afternoon session.
“This morning was a bit of a warmup. He still needed to do a bit of a run to complete his refresher with a conservative setup on the car.
“Not running this afternoon really hurts us. Here in Indy, when the weather is good, you want to be out there, and today was a day of good weather.
“We have a lot of capable guys. We will get on top of this matter and see.”