Rain curtails Indy rookie session
Persistent rain at Indianapolis restricted the rookie field's attempts to get up to speed for this year's 500
Four hours this afternoon were set aside for drivers new to Indy or requiring 'refresher' track time, but rain set in only five minutes after the session started.
It relented for a brief period three hours later, allowing just over 20 minutes of running before the precipitation resumed. Finally at 5.30pm local time, half an hour before the session was due to end, the officials decided to call it a day.
Dreyer & Reinbold's returnee Tomas Scheckter went fastest in the little running that took place, ahead of Graham Rahal, driving for father Bobby's Rahal Letterman team for the first time.
Jay Howard (Sarah Fisher Racing), Ana Beatriz (Dreyer & Reinbold), Simona de Silvestro (HVM) and Takuma Sato (KV) at least made some progress through their rookie orientation courses, during which the new drivers have to produce four consistent runs at ever-increasing pre-determined speeds before they can be passed to compete fully.
But Conquest duo Mario Romancini and Bertrand Baguette did not have chance to get up to speed at all today, and neither did returnees AJ Foyt IV (Foyt) and Davey Hamilton (de Ferran Dragon).
Sunday will see another two-hour session for 'veteran' drivers before the rookies and refresher drivers have the remaining four hours to themselves again, giving the newcomers plenty of time to complete the rookie stipulations providing it stays dry. Full practice starts on Monday.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold 40.6107s 2. Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman 40.9197s + 0.3090s 3. Townsend Bell Schmidt/Ganassi 40.9791s + 0.3684s 4. Jay Howard Sarah Fisher 41.8529s + 1.2422s 5. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 42.0950s + 1.4843s 6. Simona de Silvestro HVM 42.0961s + 1.4854s 7. Takuma Sato KV 42.6546s + 2.0439s 8. Sebastian Saavedra Herta 42.6684s + 2.0577s 9. Mario Romancini Conquest 48.5300s + 7.9193s 10. Bertrand Baguette Conquest 1m06.2179s + 25.6072s 11. AJ Foyt IV Foyt 1m23.3059s + 42.6953s 12. Davey Hamilton de Ferran Luczo Dragon
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments